Old Secrets Revealed
by Fairykick
Summary: The Strawhats pick up a girl from a poor island and sets out for new adventures. Will love bloom and will friendships remain after the truths have been seen? The OC will not be the main character in this fic and the story will focus on Roronoa. Also don't hesitate to review, appreciate both positive and negative critic . Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

This is another attempt at a fanfic. The story is mostly done so I will try to do weekly updates. I hope you will enjoy it and don't hesitate to review and give me good and bad critic, I appreciate it all ^^

The story takes place after the time skip…

CHAPTER 1

The sky was filled with dark clouds that were about to burst and shower the land and sea beneath it with rain. The Thousand Sunny was docked to a small pier and Zoro was taking a nap on the deck while Luffy and Usopp were running around to a cheerful tune played by Brook. Sanji and Franky had gone to the village to buy some last minute necessities together with Chopper. Nami was worriedly looking out at the sea and Robin walked up to her.

"Navigator-san, is everything ok?"

"Hmm? Oh, Robin! I'm just worried about the weather. I have feeling that we need to leave this island as soon as possible."

"You think the logpose will settle today?"

"It should, the locals told me that it would settle on the fourth day. How did your shopping go?

"I found some seemingly good books that I just put away." She replied with a smile. As she finished her sentence a yell could be heard and then a loud crash. The women turned their heads to the sound to find out that Luffy and Usopp had crashed into Zoro who was now laying in a somewhat uncomfortable position with the other two above him.

He made a grunt and pushed them away from him.

"Mattaku!"

"Wari Zoro! Hehe!"

Zoro just shook his head and stood up and stretched. When he began to make his way off the ship Nami got a bad feeling telling her to stop him.

"Hey Zoro were are you going?"

"On a walk." He said as he scratched his ear.

"The log pose will probably settle in an hour or two, and a storm is coming. We will have to leave as soon as possible, we can't afford you getting lost in the village."

"Tsk, just send Chopper, he can follow my scent." He continued walking and ignored the rest of Nami's words.

Zoro began to walk through the village and look for a bar he could enter. After not so long he found a place that looked somewhat clean but still noisy. He sat down at the bar and ordered an entire pitch of sake. He poured himself a cup and took it immediately. As he set the cup back down again he leaned his head to his hand and looked out over the bar. A couple of people were playing some sort of a game in the corner of the room and throughout the room women were seducing men. Zoro realized what kind of bar he must have gone into. He poured himself another drink, and looked longingly at the women but then shook his head, it would be nice to go and have some fun but he had understood the seriousness in what Nami had said. If Chopper was to find him, he rather not be interrupted so it was better not to start anything. He poured himself two more cups. He stared into his empty cup while thoughts were running through his mind.

 _Oi, Kuina, are you enjoying my trip of becoming the greatest swordsman there is? Sometimes I wonder, if you were still here would I ever have become as good as I am today? Would I ever have met Luffy? Would we have grown to become something more? Would love have happened between us? I don't know why I have these sappy thoughts right now but sometimes I wonder. Nami and Robin are nice but I will never see them as anything more than nakamas and sisters. It would be nice if you could help out a bit and help me get a girlfriend. Hehe, this sake must be stronger than I thought to give me these thoughts. Well I must be crazy to think I would be able to find a girl who would want to stay with a pirate. Nani…? My sake is already gone, damnit. An hour already passed, I should try to get back to the ship before the witch adds interest to my debt._

Zoro made his way out of the bar and began strolling down the streets to where he thought the ship might be. After a few minutes of walking he heard someone sing. The voice was clear and bright but the tune was full of emotions. He began to walk in that direction and stopped when he reached its origin. He found himself in front of a girl in a dirty rag that was supposed to be a dress. Her long dark emerald hair was messy and pointed in all directions, she had no shoes on her feet, and face and body looked really skinny.

He looked her over and saw that she was selling some kind of fruit. She had stopped singing as he approached and was now looking at him curiously. "You're not cold?" He asked her while raising an eyebrow.

She shrugged and simply said. "That's life, the world is a cold place." A shiver ran through him as he heard her say those harsh words. This girl didn't look well and here she was singing and selling fruit. Zoro was a bit confused on what to do. After a moment he asked her.

"How much for the fruit?

"10 beli each."

He checked his pocket and took out all the coins he had left, which was only 13 beli. He gave her all and told her to keep the rest. She looked at him with wide eyes and gave him a fruit and while weakly saying thank you. The fruit was small so he ate it up at once.

"This little fruit sure is good!" He said and smiled at her. He was about to turn around and leave when he heard her say.

"Please, take some more with you. You are my first customer in days. If no one eats them they will go bad." She had a faint blush on her cheeks.

"Then why don't you eat them."

"My employee won't allow me, I rather you have it than them?"

"You sure about that? You won't get in trouble for it?"

"I can deal with whatever they'll do to me, please have some, if I can defy them just a little it will make me happy."

Zoro didn't particularly like the part 'whatever they'll do to me', he looked her over again and saw that determined look in her face. He gave her a nod and then smiled. "Then go ahead, give me as much as you feel like." Her face brightened up and she smiled from the bottom of her heart. His heart skipped a bit from receiving such a smile but as the man he was he didn't let it show. She was humming a soft melody as she filled a medium sized leather bag until there was no space left and then tied a secure knot that would stay unless someone cut it up. Zoro received it, thanked her and began to walk away.

"I didn't see you pay for that." A muscular man said stepping out from a shadow together with four other men, all holding long knifes. One of them walked passed Zoro up to the girl. He grabbed her hair and pulled her face upwards.

"Nah, Lexi, don't tell me you gave it to him for free." Zoro turned around right on time to see the man slap the girl to the ground.

"Run, these men are strong, get away!" She cried out. The man getting pissed off at her, kicked her in her belly.

"You wench, you want to die?" The man asked as he kicked her again, and again." After seeing that she went limp he kicked her once more before stopping.

Zoro watched the scene with angry eyes. How could they do that to a fragile girl like her.

"Are you gonna pay for that?" The man that had appeared first asked.

"I'm a pirate, I don't pay, I take." He said simply.

"Yare, yare… if you can't pay I guess we just have to kill you."

"What about her?" Zoro nodded towards the unconscious girl on the ground.

"Lexi? She will get a good beating and go without supper. A wench like her should be happy for whatever she can get." The men around him began to laugh.

"I won't allow that to happen." As he said that the air got tense and heavy. The boss and the two men charged at him with knifes, but before they could register they were laying on the ground bleeding from their chests. Zoro turned around to the last man that was standing over the girl. He ran towards the man who pulled out a gun and fired. With his quick reflexes Zoro cut the bullet in half and sliced the man up. Before he had reached the ground the man had already died.

Zoro wiped his blade on the man's jacket and unsheathed his sword. One sword had been more than enough for lowlifes like these men. He kneeled next to the girl and checked for pulse and breathing, it was there but very faintly. _I better let Chopper take a look at her._ He thought worriedly as he carefully picked her up and placed her on his back. He began to walk once again, he never would admit it out loud but he was completely lost. It was at this moment that Chopper decided to find him. The little reindeer ran up to him with a panicked face.

"Zoro! I have looked everywhere for you! We have to hurry back, the Sunny is under attack."

"By who?"

Suddenly the rain started to pour down heavily and thunder could be heard. With no warning the wind began to whip them.

"By marines that had docked on another part of the island." Chopper changed into Walk Point and began to run towards the ship with Zoro right on his heels.

They ran as fast as they could and when Usopp saw them he shouted. "Nami they're back!"

"That was about time!"

As soon as Chopper and Zoro put their feet on the ship the Sunny flew forward with the help of coup de vent, and they managed to escape the marines. When Thousand Sunny continued on a more steady peace everyone came up on deck to see that everyone was ok.

"Stupid Marimo, of course you would get lost on the last day when we had to be in a hurry."

"Shut up your ero-cook!"

"Zoro-san who is it that you have on your back?" Robin asked curiously. Hearing the question the rest of the crew inspected him more clearly and found out that he was indeed carrying someone.

"Oh, shit I forgot I had her on my back! I didn't mean to take her with us! Chopper can you take a look at her, she's hurt."

"Then let's hurry and take her to the infirmary room." Chopper said in his doctor mode.

"Luffy, you're ok with Zoro taking her onboard like that?" Franky asked casually.

"Zoro probably had a good reason. We will wait for his explanation." They all settled down to wait for the first mate and the crew doctor.

Some 10-15 min later the two of them came up on deck, with Zoro having a troubled look on his face which was unusual to his normally non-caring expression. They sat down and made themselves comfortable around the rest.

"How's the girl? Is her injurious serious?" Nami asked to get the conversation going.

Chopper got a thoughtful look on his face and then answered. "She is very malnourished, so Sanji please look after her diet carefully while she's with us." Sanji gave a curt nod. "She also has a lot of bruises which makes me think that she has been abused. I gave her some painkillers but she is really weak at the moment."

There was a short pause after he finished before Luffy continued. "Zoro why did you bring her onboard the ship? What happened?"

Zoro sighed and then began from the very moment he first met the girl. He remembered he had the bag with the fruits and gave them to Luffy while describing how he got them. He continued his story to the end where him and Chopper got back to the ship. "Captain I'm sorry if I did wrong for bringing her with me."

"Nah, nah, don't worry! She gave you free food, she must be really nice! Let's go down and greet her and see how she is." Luffy said cheerfully while jumping excitedly on his spot.

"Luffy, and everyone, just remember not to startle her, she will be very confused when she wakes up being in a new environment and everything." Chopper said worriedly.

"Hai, hai! Let's go!" He yelled and the crew just shrugged their shoulders as they followed their captain to the infirmary.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Lexi woke up to noises around her, she felt so tired but also scared, the voices didn't sound anything at all to the ones she was used to. She tried to move but as she did she felt pain in her entire body. Suddenly feeling very afraid she opened her eyes and sat up in the bed while holding her hand over her stomach. Her eyes scanned the room and there were a lot of people in there that she couldn't recognize. She drew her knees to her chest and put her head on them while covering her head with her arms in a protective way while saying in a weak voice.

"Please don't hurt me, I'm sorry if I did wrong, don't hurt me."

"You gave Zoro food, why would we hurt you?" She heard someone say in a confused voice.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

"Luffy she is very scared at the moment, she doesn't know that we won't hurt her. She has probably been hurt a lot in the past."

"Zoro why don't you try to talk to her, she might be less afraid if she's able to remember or recognize you?" A female voice said.

Someone grunted in response and then she felt someone sit next to her on the bed.

"Hrm…There is nothing to be scared of. I was the one who took you here and I won't let anyone hurt you so don't be afraid. I hope this isn't what you meant by saying you could handle it."

His words made her quiet but she still remained tense. After a minute in silence Lexi had managed to calm down a bit and slowly removed her hands from her head and carefully looked up to see the person on her side.

Her eyes widened as she recognized that tan skin and light green hair. Her lip began to quiver and before anyone knew what was going on tears flooded down her cheeks. She threw herself at Zoro and hugged him tightly while crying.

"You're alive, I can't believe you survived them. I thought they would kill you and it would have been all my fault." She wailed.

Zoro being slightly shocked like the rest of the crew awkwardly put his hand on her back and patted it in what he thought might be a comforting way.

"There, there, don't cry, I didn't even get a scratch. They were nowhere near my level and you're safe now. I accidentally brought you onboard our ship and we already set sail. They won't be able to get you now."

Seeing as she kept crying and holding on to him for dear life, he carefully put his arms around her in a gentle embrace. He rocketed them gently back and forth and whispered to her in a soothing voice that she was safe now and that nobody would hurt her.

They stayed like that for a moment until she calmed down and stopped crying. She stayed still for a few moments so she could think through her situation. When curiosity won she leaned back a bit and asked quietly.

"Where am I and who are you people?"

The straw hats that had stood there awkwardly and watched the first mate be so gently and getting a small blush on his cheeks, got some life in them as they realized that the fun was about to begin. Luffy who had had a serious look on his face and curious eyes on his first mate put a big smile on his face and busted out.

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy, the one who will become the Pirate King!"

Zoro thinking that his duty was over tried to move away from the bed he was sitting on only to find out that the girl reached out for his arm in desperation and held on.

"Please don't go." She begged quietly.

Zoro furrowed his brows and sat back down with a look at the rest of the crew daring them to say anything.

Chopper chose that this was a good opportunity to explain the situation to her.

"Excuse me?" Lexi looked around to find the source of the voice until her eyes landed on the little reindeer. She gasped and held Zoro's arm a bit harder. Only Zoro could hear her whisper out a tiny 'kawai!'

"As our Captain said, he is the one will become the Pirate King, and we are the Straw Hat Pirates. You're currently on our Luffy's ship, her name is Thousand Sunny built by Franky over there." Franky gave a small wave and smile and she responded with timid smile by her own. "This woman here is Nami, and she is our navigator. Robin is an archeologist, and Usopp is our sniper. Brook is our musician and Sanji is our cook. You already met Zoro, he is the first mate and our Swordsman. And I'm Chopper, this ship's doctor." He said with a smile

Lexi looked at the crew a bit disbelievingly but then shrugged. This was the grand line after all. The little reindeer continued.

"You are very malnourished and have a lot of bruises and some other injuries could you tell us a bit about yourself?" He asked gently.

Lexi hesitated she was still a bit scared that these people would end up hurting her. Robin seeing the look in her eyes understood and walked up to her. She gave her a tissue to wipe her tears and said gently.

"We all carry burdens from the past. When joining this crew I was also scared of being betrayed and hurt but they all showed me that I could trust them. Luffy already said it was ok that you came onboard and Zoro said he would protect you. You have nothing to fear from us." Robin gave her a smile and asked her. "So why don't we start with your name, since you know ours?"

Lexi looked over the people in the room and they all had encouraging smiles, and the captain had a huge grin on his face. She took comfort in their efforts and gained the courage to speak up.

"Lexi, my name is Lexi."

"How did you end up hurt?" Nami asked knowing that Chopper needed to know.

"My parents had a debt towards those bad men, and when they passed away from a disease they came to collect me, said I had to work off the debt. They only fed me the necessary amount to stay alive and only gave me something to wear so I wouldn't freeze to death. They usually get drunk in the evening and they find pleasure in punishing me for not selling as much as they wanted, but on that island most are poor and there is nearly no way to make a profit of the villagers."

"Hmm, I understand." Chopper said as he scratched his chin with his cloves. "But tell me is that bracelet hurting you?" He asked as he noticed that the skin around it was red and irritated.

"Hai, but I can't get it off, when they understood I had eaten a Devil Fruit they put it on me so that I couldn't escape." She said sadly.

"Must be seastone, well we can fix that easily enough." Zoro said as he unsheathed one of his swords. Lexi eyes grew big in fear but then relaxed, as she saw no ill intent in his face. With a quick strike on the bracelet it broke in half without the sword even touching her skin. Chopper came up to her side and began to add some ointment to it.

"Wow! So cool! You're also a devil fruit user?" Luffy shouted out.

Lexi got a bit caught off guard by the word 'also'.

"Tell me, tell me, what fruit did you eat? I eat the Gomu, Gomu Fruit, and I'm a rubber man. Robin ate the Hana, Hana no Mi, Chopper ate the Hito, Hito no Mi, and Brook ate the Yomi, Yomi no Mi!" Luffy and Usopp seemed super excited.

"I ate the Genso, Genso no Mi, I can create illusions." She said shyly.

"So cool, can you show us?" Usopp yelled.

"Hai, but I haven't done this in a while." She said shyly.

She concentrated for a bit and then a copy of herself stood on the floor next to her bed and facing the others. The copy waved to them.

"COOL!" Franky, Usopp, Chopper, and Luffy screamed.

Zoro noticed that she was beginning to sweat. "You shouldn't overexert yourself. You're still tired."

"Marimo is right. There will be plenty of time for Lexi to show us her ability, you shouldn't tire her."

"Lexi do you mind if I ask how old you are? As your doctor I need to know." Chopper asked in his doctor voice.

"Ano… 20 years old."

"Oh really!" Nami said excitedly. "We are the same age then. Zoro and Sanji are a year older and Luffy and Usopp a year younger."

"Honto-ne?"

"Hai!" Nami replied with a smile.

All of a sudden Luffy yelled. "Aaaah how could I forget! Sanji FOOOOOD! I'm hungry!"

"Hai, hai, I will go and start on dinner then."

"Sanji, make something for Lexi she will be joining us at the table." Chopper said with a smile. "Nami, Robin, do you have any spare clothes that you could lend her?"

"I think we can manage to find something." Robin smiled while walking out the room with Nami.

The others took this as a signal and began to leave as well. Luffy and Usopp ran out shouting something about fishing.

Feeling that his arm was still being held he sighed and when he noticed that everyone else had left he said. "Don't worry, Chopper wont hurt you. We will all be up on deck waiting for dinner. Freshen up and join us when you're done." Lexi loosened her grip and quietly watched as the swordsman stood up patted the little reindeer on his head and then left.

"He is nice, isn't he?" Chopper said. Lexi nod her head. She turned her head away from the door and looked at him. Her cheeks blushed as she looked at the cuteness which was Chopper.

"You're nice too." They smiled at each other and then startled giggling. As they waited for Nami and Robin they talked about various stuff and every now and then Chopper would ask a medical related question and write it down on her chart. They quickly got along and Chopper was pleased to see a bright smile on her face when she greeted the other two girls as they came back.

/

Thank you for reading and please review ^^


	3. Chapter 3

**Another chapter up! Enjoy ^^**

Chapter 3

The days on Sunny passed by quickly. Nami and Robin was pleased to have one more girl join them, especially Nami having a girl her own age to talk to. They could often be seen sitting under the mikan trees while gossiping. The first day Lexi had joined for the dinner she had been overwhelmed by the quantity of food she was allowed to eat. Sanji had taken it personally and felt hate towards the men that had treated her so badly. He often brought drinks and snacks more often to the women after Lexi had joined and his swooning had no limits. In the beginning Lexi had been a bit confused and scared but the other girls laughed and said that it was completely normal and that Sanji was harmless.

Franky had shown her around the ship and had cried after having heard her story told in more detail. In return she had also shed tears upon hearing his past. A bond was quickly forming between them. Chopper and Lexi whom had bonded on their first day could be seen together as Lexi cuddled Chopper while running away from Usopp and Luffy, trying to save him from one of their games. In the afternoon she would sit with Robin and learn about the world and the places Robin had visited. Occasionally she would ask Usopp about his new experiments or play with Luffy by making different illusions. As the days had passed and Lexi had gotten physically and mentally stronger her devil fruit powers had grown and she could more easily create illusions and hold them for a longer time.

The crew had also found out that she had another talent. One evening when everyone was laying down on deck and staring up at the stars listening to Brook play, Lexi had stood at the railings looking out over the sea. She recognized the song Brook was playing and without realizing she had started to sing along to the tunes. Everyone had turned their head in surprise and Brook was delighted to find a person with such a beautiful melodic singing that could accompany his plays. It wasn't uncommon for them to perform in the evenings when everyone relaxed.

But no matter how much time she spent with the others the crew didn't fail to notice the stares she would give their swordsman. Of course Zoro was oblivious to them as he always slept when receiving the looks. The crew had also noticed how she always placed herself next to Zoro during meals or how she would hold his arm and drag him over the ship to show him something or how she often hid behind him after having pissed Luffy off with fooling him badly with one of her illusions. They noticed but didn't say anything as it seemed that Zoro didn't mind.

They had been sailing for two weeks when Nami announced that they would reach an island the next day. This caused happy shouts and everyone was running around the ship to find out what they needed to restock. Everyone was busy writing down lists except for Zoro who was sleeping, Robin who was reading a book, Luffy who was running around screaming island over and over and Lexi who had disappeared to the back of the ship, she was looking out into the distance deep in thought.

 _I guess this is it then. For Zoro to save me I'm eternally thankful. They have all been really good to me, but how can a weak person like me stay on a pirate ship like theirs? I would just be in the way. I wish I could be their Nakama, I would die for them if that would help them but I'm too weak to even do that. I wish I could stay._

Silent tears ran down her face as she had these dark thoughts and soon night was upon them.

At breakfast the next morning Lexi sat quietly and barely ate. This caught the attention of several crew members. Zoro peered down at her and exchanged a look with Chopper. Chopper gave him a worried nod and asked her.

"Lexi are you feeling unwell, you are barely eating?" Upon these words the chaos that was meal time died down.

"No not really."

"Then what's wrong?" Franky said worriedly, having taking the role of older brother.

Lexi stared down her plate. She tried to hold back her tears but her emotions were too strong and slowly they escaped her eyes. This really had the crew starting to worry. Suddenly Luffy got that serious look in his eyes and stood up.

"Has anyone on the ship bullied you? What did Zoro do?"

"Hey! Why am I the culprit here?" Zoro yelled in his defense.

Lexi panicking over the fact that Zoro was being blamed for something he hadn't done because of her, she looked up and said.

"No Luffy, no one has done anything bad to me! I'm just sad that I will have to leave that's all." She hung her head low not wanting to meet their eyes.

"Leave, why do you have to leave?" Luffy said confused while picking his nose, earning him a kick from Sanji who lectured him.

"Not at the table you filthy captain!"

"Hai…" Luffy said and rubbed his tender head.

"Lexi, tell us why do you think you have to leave?" Nami said in a heartbroken voice. In the last two weeks the girls had really gotten close.

"This is a pirate ship, how could I stay? I'm so weak, I would be nothing but a hindrance to all of you. The island that we are reaching is the perfect spot for you to get rid of me. How could you want me on your ship. Me being here is just an accident after all." Tears were now running freely down her cheek.

"But you are Nakama so you can't leave." Luffy said simply. "You are my magician, hehe. A crew member can't leave without the captains permission so you're not leaving."

"But I'm weak…"

"You are my magician." Luffy made it sound so simple and the other crew members shook their heads as they remembered how pointless it was to argue with Luffy when he was in captain mode.

Suddenly she felt a strong arm around her and then she was pressed into Zoro's side. He looked down at her and grinned.

"If you're worried about being weak then just get stronger and until you get there I will take on your attackers. Didn't I already tell you that I would protect you?"

All Lexi could do was blush. Sanji having enough of stopping in the middle of a meal time announced. "No food wasting under my watch, hurry and eat up." And so the chaos once again began.

 **Thank you for reading and don't forget to review ^^ The more reviews the faster the update ;)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Since I passed a major exam today I will post this chapter a bit earlier than planned ;) Thank you to all who read this story so far and to those who continuing reading. Special thanks to the ones who reviewed, followed and favorited! Much appreciated ^^ Now enjoy !**

Chapter 4

Zoro was walking down a stone paved road next to Lexi. He was enjoying his company though he didn't say it. He thought back to the moment they had docked and he was silently thanking Nami for telling Lexi to go with him.

 **"Minna! Line up!" Nami shouted.**

 **They boys got excited and lined up on the deck after having docked properly. Lexi and Robin lined up at the end. When everyone was lined up nicely Nami began her regular speech.**

 **"Ok guys, you know the drill. Spend the money wisely and don't ask for more cuz you won't get any." She handed out small bags to the males and gave bigger ones to Lexi, Robin and herself.**

 **From Lexi's expression it was evident that she was surprised she had gotten any at all. Nami sensed her reaction and simply said that obviously she would have some since she was Nakama.**

 **Zoro examined his bag and realized that his bag was much smaller than even the males.**

 **"Oi Nami. Why is my bag so small compared to everyone else's?"**

 **"Since you still owe me money, I just cut down in what you owe me for interest since the last island." She said and shrugged her shoulders.**

 **Zoro felt the vein in his neck pulsate and enlarge, but he held his mouth shut. No point in fighting with the witch.**

 **"So who's buying necessities for Sunny?" Sanji would be responsible for food supplies and Franky would get the necessities to maintain her. Considering this they both got en extra bag of money.**

 **"Ah… Navigator-san this is Lexi's first time on a different island maybe she shouldn't go alone." Robin said.**

 **"Hmm, you're right. I was thinking of going with you and Chopper."**

 **"I'm taking Luffy with me. I don't want him to eat up the town." Sanji said and everyone else shivered as they thought of Luffy going on an eating rampage in this town that was known for its food.**

 **"I don't mind watching over this ship with my sharp eyes. Yohohohoho, I don't have any, skull joke, yohohoho."**

 **"I was planning on going with Franky so he could help me with advice on supplies to my experiments." Usopp said a bit apologetic to Lexi.**

 **Nobody noticed the quick eye contact Nami and Robin shared at the moment. Both smiled secretly before Nami cleared her throat and said. "Then it's settled. Zoro follow Lexi and don't you dare let her get hurt." Zoro's hissed hearing that rude tone.**

 **"Oi Lexi, be aware that, that shithead Marimo can get lost walking down a straight line. Don't lose sight of him or you will lose him."**

 **"Thanks Sanji-kun."**

 **"Why don't we just get Zoro a leash?" Usopp said without thinking. The glare Zoro sent him made Usopp's knees weak and he quickly hid behind Franky.**

 **Sanji started laughing uncontrollable, which made Zoro attacke Sanji full on while Luffy was on his back laughing at the chaos. When Nami had enough of the fight she broke them up and everyone began to leave Thousand Sunny to do their shopping.**

His mind was still in thoughts when he felt a tug on his arm.

"Not that way Zoro, the man said down this street."

"Is that so?" Zoro chuckled. He peered down at her with his one eye and noticed how nervous she was. "If you're scared of losing me just hold my hand." He said as he took a secure grip on her hand. As he looked down the street he failed to notice her blushed face. _I'm damn lucky that I came up with this strategy. If I hold her hand there is no way she would get lost and I would lose her. If I did the entire crew would be up my ass nagging me about it for months. And Chopper did say that she needed a lot of physical comfort after having grown up without any. Thinking about it, her hand is rather small and soft, I can't believe her and Nami are the same age._

"Zoro?" He realized they had been standing outside the sword store for a while.

"Hrm… I was just checking it out. Let's go in, I want to see if they have anything special."

They entered the store and were welcomed by a young tall boy with short dark blue hair. He glared at Zoro and then saw Lexi walking in behind him. He immediately walked up to her and went down on one knee and kissed her hand.

"Never have I ever seen such deep brown and captivating eyes. And this dark emerald green hair of yours is mesmerizing. Now tell me how can I help you and your bodyguard?"

Lexi giggled and blushed from the attention.

"Ano…he's not my bodyguard we're actually nakama. We only came to look around if that's ok?

"Go ahead beautiful. Let me know if you need anything." He said as he kissed her hand again and went back to a hidden room behind the counter while ignoring Zoro.

"Tsk, what a prick." Zoro growled.

Both of them looked around the store for a while. Lexi stole some glances of the swordsman. To a different person Zoro would have seemed intimidating, with the scar running down his closed eye, and the other scar over his chest which his clothes bared. But Lexi didn't find him intimidating at all, with Zoro she felt safe. Watching Zoro testily swing a sword she gathered up the courage to ask him something she had wanted to ask for a while.

"Zoro?"

"Nani?"

"Could you please teach me how to wield a sword?"

Zoro put the sword back and observed her quietly. He hid his surprise well, he hadn't expected that question and thought of how to answer her. Her cheeks were flushed and she looked up at him with determination in her eyes. Her physical appearance had improved greatly after having followed Sanji's diet. She was still slim but it looked healthy compared to what she had been when he first took her onboard. He realized he probably should take her clothes shopping after this so she wouldn't have to lend Nami's and Robin's clothes. He sighed and answered her.

"And why would you want that?"

"I want to learn how to fight, to protect myself and to be able to protect everyone else."

"A sword means that you are prepared to kill, to take someone's life." He said seriously.

"I'm prepared."

"Taking a life is not an easy thing. Of the crew only Robin, I and probably Brook has ever taken a life. And to take a life you must be ready to also give your life in every battle you enter."

"I know, but Zoro I feel that I can do it, please teach me."

Zoro scratched his head and then grinned. "Fine by me then, but make sure to tell the others that this was all your idea. First of all we need to find a sword which you can wield easily and depending on that we can work up a style for you."

"Honto-ne! Arigatou Zoro!" Her face smiled brightly and excitedly.

"Let me know when you find something that feels right." And then it began, the sword-testing. Zoro would give her a sword and depending on her response, he would give her a lighter or heavier, shorter or longer. After having tried all the appropriate swords according to Zoro, no one had really fallen to her liking.

Zoro scratched his chin and suddenly an idea got to him.

"Ask the guy to come out."

Lexi raised an eyebrow at him but complied. A moment later he came out obviously pleased that she needed his help.

"My beautiful how can I help you?"

"I've been trying to find a sword that fits me, but there isn't any out here. Do you possibly have any stored?"

"Oh, yes we do my beautiful pearl. We have three named swords, maybe you will suit each other. Just give me a moment and I will be right back."

A few moments passed before he came back carefully carrying three swords. "Here we go," he said as he unsheathed them and displayed them on the counter. "This one is Yishiro and this one is Winoko Tomo and lastly we have Tantsu."

Lexi looked questioningly at Zoro. Getting the hint Zoro picked up the first sword and swung it testily. He then proceeded to the other two and repeated the test.

"Give these two a try." He said and held out the two latter swords.

Lexi picked up Winoko Tomo first, the blade was long but light, and easy to handle. The hilt was a dark green and she instantly liked the sword. She put it away with a smile and reached for Tantsu. The moment she held the sword in her hand she got a feeling of rightness passing through her. The blade was shorter than Winoko Tomo, about one third shorter, and she felt as if it's weight was perfectly matched for her. Tantsu's hilt was thin, which made it easy for Lexi to properly wrap her hand around it, and it's dark black color was a strong contrast to her pale skin.

"I think i've found the one." She said with a bright smile at Zoro.

Zoro nodded approvingly, glad she had chosen the same sword he himself had thought would fit her.

"My beautiful! Does it suit you?"

"Yes, I feel as if it was made for me! How much are you selling it for?"

"Tantsu is an amazing sword and it's price is 700,000 berries."

"That's almost all of what Nami gave me." she said with a sigh, "very well then…"

"Hold on Lexi." Zoro interrupted and turned to the seller.

"That's almost all of her money, can't I do something instead so that you could give it to her for free?" His face was serious and the scar over his eye intimidating.

The man sweat dropped, he really liked the lady but this man was already on his nerves. He then noticed the three swords hanging on Zoro's sash. His eyes opened up wider and a confident smirk graced his lips.

"Hmm, what about a trade then. One of those swords for this one, a person shouldn't need more than one anyway."

"I use all of them so they are not for trade." Seeing the man's disappointed face Zoro got an idea. "I wouldn't trade them but are you up for a bet? If I win we get Tantsu for free, if I lose you get one of my swords and we pay for Tantsu. Your luck against mine." Zoro gave him a challenging look, while Lexi stared at him bewildered.

"Zoro you don't need to do that, it's fine."

Zoro ignored her and waited for the man's response. After contemplating it the man nodded, realizing he had more to win than to lose.

"I'm in! But I decide on the bet!"

Zoro just nod his head telling the man to continue.

"It's a traditional sword test. You throw one of your swords up in the air and stay still while waiting for it to come down. If you get cut you lose, and if you're not you win. How does it sound?"

"Interesting, I will try my luck this way again then. What sword do you want me to use?"

"Take the one with the white hilt, if you lose I want that sword!"

Lexi noticed how her companion's face got a bit puzzled by the statement, but the expression was quickly gone and replaced with determination. "You don't need to do this Zoro, I don't want you hurt, I can pay it's ok!"

"Lexi stay back, it's been decided. Now it's all up to fate…" With horror Lexi witnessed how Zoro closed his eye and threw the unsheathed Wado Ichimonji into the air. Both her and the seller held their breaths as time seemed to go by painfully slow. The white sword began to descend and Zoro stood still as a rock waiting for fate to decide.

Just as it seemed like the sword would split him in half, it tilted and instead cut through the floor mere millimeters from his body. He opened his eye and smirked. "I guess I win."

The two witnesses gaped at him as he sheathed his treasured sword. He went up to the counter and picked up the sword. "And the sheath?" The man rushed into the hidden room and was soon back out with a plain black sheath. Zoro picked it up and began to walk to the exit. "Lexi let's get going." She hurried after him and almost walked into his back as he suddenly stopped.

Zoro slowly turned around and walked back to the counter. With a hand full of berries he set the money in front of the man and walked away. When he reached the exit he turned his head and said loudly. "For the floor." He then proceed to walk out followed by a shaky Lexi.

…

"How did you know you weren't going to get cut?"

"I didn't."

"But what if you had lost a limb or what if you had died?"

"Then it would have been fate and that was only how far I was supposed to go."

"You didn't need to risk your life for that!"

"I put my life at stake every day, and you need that money for other stuff."

"Like what!?" Lexi huffed angrily now that her shock had dissipated.

"You're planning on borrowing Nami's and Robin's clothes forever?" He raised an eyebrow at her and felt slightly amused at her expression when she realized what he had just said. A faint blush tinted her cheeks.

It was in that situation Nami and Robin found them.

"Lexiiii!" Nami shouted as her and Robin walked up to them.

"What's with this tense atmosphere?" Robin asked curiously.

"Just a small disagreement." Zoro said causally. "I'm not really good with shopping so why don't you two take Lexi with you and expand her wardrobe."

"Well we don't mind…" Nami said hesitantly. "Where are you going though?"

"Drink." Was all he said as he slowly disappeared from them.

"Lexi are you alright?" Nami asked.

Lexi explained what had happened and while Nami got an irritated look and mumbled idiot under her breath, Robin just laughed. "That's how our swordsman is after all."

 **Thank you for reading and don't forget to review :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello! hope you will like this and don't forget to review ^^**

Chapter 5

"Lexi-chan I brought you a drink!" Sanji sang as he swayed his way up to her and Zoro.

Zoro and Lexi had just finished a training session. Or more like training session for Lexi and playing around for Zoro. They had been at sea for about a week and everyday Zoro would make her go through some basic movements and then he would make her use them when they would spar.

Sanji handed Lexi her drink but the pink hearts in his eyes disappeared when he heard Zoro break out in a cough fit.

"Zoro, you ok? Need some water?"

"I'm fine curly brow." He managed to mutter after catching his breath.

"But Zoro, you've been coughing a lot lately." Lexi said.

"I said I'm fine. Dart head I'm skipping dinner tonight so count me out. I'm going to bed."

With that Zoro left, muttering something quietly.

"Sanji-san, lately he's been sleeping a lot more than normally, should we tell Chopper that something is up?"

"If he still coughs tomorrow we will let Chopper know but for now we should just let him sleep. Keeping the marimo from sleep is just asking for a fight and right now I have dinner to prepare."

The next morning as everyone sat down for breakfast waiting to be served, Sanji noticed that someone was missing.

"Usopp, where is Zoro?"

"He was still sleeping when I got up."

"Sanji where is the FOOOD!?"

Sanji kicked Luffy's hands as he tried to reach and steal some food. He then proceeded to serve the ladies first before giving the rest of the crew their breakfast.

"You guys can start while I get Zoro, I would never let someone on this ship miss a meal twice in a row, even if it's the marimo." Noticing that no one listened to him he muttered something angrily before making his exit.

Down in the men's cabin it was quiet. It was strangely quiet. As Sanji lit the lamp he realized what was off, Zoro's snoring was missing. Thinking that he was awake he said in his pissed off voice.

"Oi, marimo! Breakfast is ready!"

When he didn't get a response he walked closer to the bunk bed where Zoro usually slept. Indeed Zoro was sleeping but he wasn't snoring. And Zoro always snored!

Sanji shook him roughly. "Oi, marimo wake up!" No response. "Are you for real?" Sanji shook him again and as he did he came in contact with his arm. Sanji pulled his hand back in reflex as he almost burnt himself. Now feeling a bit scared Sanji put his hand over Zoro's forehead.

 _Oh shit he's really burning up. Damnit why won't he wake up? Shit, shit, shit, I better get Chopper immediately._

Sanji tried a last time to wake him up when it failed he ran back to the galley and slammed the door open. The crew enjoying their meal all jumped from the sound. As they turned their heads to see what had happened they saw Sanji a bit out of breath with a hint of panic in his face.

"Chopper hurry! Zoro is not waking up and his temperature is ridiculously high!" Hearing this Luffy stopped eating and said seriously.

"Zoro's sick?"

"I don't know Luffy, Chopper needs to take a look first."

"Ok, all of you finish your breakfast, you too Sanji. Chopper and I will see what's wrong with Zoro." Luffy said with his captain's voice.

With that the two of them rushed to the boys room and left the rest of the crew in silence.

 **Since this chapter is super short I will update in maybe 2-3 days.**

 **Thank you to all those who support this fic ^^**

 **Let me know what you think of this story by reviewing.. does this story need more details? Adjectives?**

 **Until next time! have a continuos good weekend!**


	6. Chapter 6

**As promised, here is an early update of Chapter 6 ^^ enjoy!**

Chapter 6

"Sanji where is the ICE?! Chopper said we need to fill the bathtub with ice for Zoro."

"Hold on, I will help you carry it. Where is he now?"

"In the bathtub, Chopper said that we have to hurry or Zoro will have permanent damage in his brain that he can't recover from."

Hearing that, Sanji emptied their stored ice and he and Luffy rushed back to the ship's bathroom.

"Hurry and pour the ice in!" Chopper yelled at them.

They didn't waste any time as they unloaded all their ice in the bathtub where Zoro was laying in unconsciously.

"What now Chopper?" Luffy asked seriously.

"Now we wait. We will need more ice later, so Sanji if you could prepare some."

"No problem, I will ask the others to help as well." He said as he left Chopper and Luffy to care for their swordsman.

As time passed Chopper noticed how Zoro's temperature slowly went down. After 4h of hard efforts of trying to cool Zoro down they finally got awarded by him regaining consciousness.

"Zoro, Zoro! You're feeling better now?"

"Luffy? Where am I?"

"Zoro, you're sick, but Chopper is going to make you all better!"

"Zoro you passed out from a very high fever. I ran some tests when you were passed out and everything points to an atypical infection in your lungs. The results points to Mycoplasma Pneumoniae as the causative organism for the infection. Have you been experiencing any cough or tiredness these past days?"

"Since a week ago I started to feel a bit differently." Zoro admitted tiredly.

"A week?!" Suddenly Chopper changed into his Heavy Point and looked angrily at Zoro. "You've been feeling sick for a week, why didn't you tell me? If anyone dies or gets sick from maltreatment on this ship it's my responsibility."

Luffy found it funny how Zoro actually sank further down the bathtub while apologizing to this now very angry Chopper. When the little doctor managed to calm down and forgive the First mate, Zoro dared to ask why he was sitting naked in a bathtub filled with cold water. Hearing the explanation he muttered something about being weak.

Luffy had to help Zoro get up from the bathtub and then support him to the infirmary while Chopper went to ask Sanji to make him some food. Zoro and Luffy had to pause several times due to the cough fit Zoro would get during the short trip. When he finally laid down in the infirmary bed he instantly fell asleep. Not long after Chopper came back and gave him some medications through the catheter that he had inserted earlier.

All the crew members took turns in watching over Zoro throughout the rest of the day. He wouldn't sleep longer than 30min before he would wake up sweaty and begin to cough, the coughing episodes would last several minutes at its worst, and it was beginning to take its toll on the crew watching their strong swordsman in such a weakened state.

It was during dinnertime while everyone was gathered at the table with the exception of Zoro that Franky raised his concern.

"Chopper, Bro, isn't there anything you can do for that damn cough he has? It sounds as if his throat is ripping apart bro."

Chopper sighed and got a thoughtful look before he replied. The table had gone silent even Luffy had reduced his food shuffling to a slow chewing as he also was worried about his first mate.

"It sounds as if it's ripping apart because it actually is." Everyone looked at him with wide eyes.

"Isn't that dangerous for him then?" Usopp asked carefully.

"Yes and no. Him coughing is his body's way of trying to help him, it's its way of trying to get rid of whatever infected him. Secondly the cells in his throat has already suffered some damage that would normally let's call it "keep the throat clean" and is for now not working. So just by breathing normal air the particles in the air irritates the throat and so he coughs even more. You have all seen the amount of sputum he has spit out, that's the major reason why i'm not doing anything for his cough. He needs to get it out since the bacteria is producing it in his lungs. I should probably warn all of you that if he keeps coughing like he has for a day or two more he will lose his ability to speak for a little while until his vocal cords have healed. It's important that you all give him space to rest, this includes no fights, no playing, or giving him any stress." He said and pointedly looked at Sanji, Usopp/Luffy and finally Nami. "Franky, Brook, I want you two to put away all Zoro's training equipment in some room and then lock it, this includes his swords. Zoro is not to as much as think of having a chance of doing any training behind my back before I tell him he can."

It wasn't often that the timid little reindeer commanded the others, but when he got into his doctor's voice the crew could do nothing buy obey his orders, they trusted him after all.

"Oi, Chopper I wanted to talk to you about an issue." Chopper nodded at him to continue. "Marimo has barely touched the food i've given him all day. Considering he didn't eat yesterday, he has been without food for a full 24h now. He needs to get some nutrition in him."

Chopper looked a bit sad. "I had hoped I could avoid this. Don't make him any more food Sanji, I will give him some nutritions through an iv."

"Why is that something you want to avoid sen'i-san?"

"It's because that the medications i'm giving him right now is very strong. Without food in his belly he will feel as if it's on fire."

"Can't we do anything?" Lexi asked worriedly.

"I'm sorry, all you can do is to support him and be there for him when he needs it."

"I will try to play some soothing music for him as much as I can." Brook said suddenly.

"Ano Chopper… Can I have Zoro's food instead…" Crash! before Luffy had finished his sentence Sanji had kicked him into the wall.

"You idiot Captain, stop stealing the others food!" Sanji yelled. And so a mini chaos broke lose and the seriousness died.

—

Timeskip 5 nights forward:

Zoro stirred in his sleep and he slowly opened his eye to be met by darkness.

 _Oh my stomach! When will this hell pass?_ He asked himself. _Hmm what's that?_ As he had shifted slightly he had felt something pressing his side and a light weight on his belly. _Lexi? Wait why is she here? Oh that's right they put up guard duty on me… No wait what is she doing? Why is she snuggling closer to me? No, no, no her hand is going too low! Thank god she stopped moving! Seems like she is a deep sleeper._ He thought after listening to her breathing. _This actually feels rather good, and she smells nice too. I promised i would protect her, i need to get back on my feet soon, I can't let her down or the crew. They all rely on me to watch their backs._ His eyelid felt heavy and within moments he was back asleep again, pain forgotten, and lightly snoring.

The next morning he woke up to the feeling of someone playing with his hair and stroking his scalp. It felt surprisingly good so he kept his eye closed. After a moment he partly opened his eye and said in a low whispering voice.

"That feels really nice." The hand stopped momentarily before it continued.

"Are you feeling any better?" Lexi's concerned voice asked.

"Mm, I'm fine."

"Liar, you're definitely not fine. Chopper will be down after breakfast."

"You're not eating?" He asked in still a whispering broken tone.

"I will, later. I'm not that hungry yet."

"Mm. Lexi?" His right hand moved and searched for her hand that was resting on the bed next to him. When he got a hold of it he continued with what he wanted to say. "Thank you."

Lexi blushed faintly as she looked down at him. He wasn't sleeping but it didn't seem as if he was awake either. His big hand felt safe holding hers and she could feel the callused part of his hand due to all the amount of training he had done. Looking at his face made her heart beat faster and a bit harder. He looked tired, no, more like exhausted, and he had definitely become thinner. But still she found him as handsome as that first time she had met him. His green short hair was soft to her touch and his facial features made her want to stroke her fingers over his face. The scar running over his left eye made him look dangerous but at the same time incredibly hot and sexy which she would of course never admit to anyone. How he had gotten it was a mystery to everyone on board it seemed. She only knew he had received it during the two years the crew had been separated.

There was a light knock on the door and seconds later Chopper entered. He looked questingly at the two of them and Lexi blushed. Realizing she couldn't get her hand free from Zoro's grip she gently woke him up. As he blinked blearily she removed her hands and stood up from her seat.

"How was breakfast?"

"It was amazing as always. Sanji made some really sweet bread for me today." Chopper said happily, forgetting what he had just seen.

"I'm off then. See you later Zoro." After uttering these words she almost ran out of the infirmary leaving the other two confused.

"Lexi must have been feeling really hungry." Chopper chuckled.

"I guess so."

Zoro tiredly sat up in bed and the little doctor began his daily examination while happily telling him about the occurrences at breakfast. Zoro smiled fondly at him and chuckled a bit when he was told that Luffy had broken a plate and then Robin took the blame for it which made the cook not know what to do.

"Well Zoro, your fever is completely gone and your lungs sounds much better. The antibiotic is working perfectly and if you want to you can leave the infirmary now. However I still have to check on you regularly until you're back to perfect."

"Can i start training?"

"Absolutely not! Your vocal cords took a lot of damage this time if you strain yourself you might lose the ability to speak completely, also you've lost a lot of muscles these past days so you're going to feel really tired. Just walking around will tire you out something tremendously. Also you can start eating food again!" The little reindeer beamed at him happily.

"Hai, With a fantastic doctor like you Chopper i'm not surprised of being cured so quickly." He said and smirked as this provoked that special reaction out of the doctor.

"Hahaha, you asshole! You think that will make me happy, idiot!" Chopper said while giggling and dancing with happiness.

—

At lunch time everyone was delighted to see Zoro join them for a meal. They had had too many meals without their swordsman. When Zoro commented on that there was no booze on the table Nami bluntly said it was his fault for being prohibited to drink so Chopper had set a ban on all of them from drinking in front of him. This led to a Chopper and Zoro stare-down which usually only happened when Zoro was trying to break Chopper's orders regarding his recovery. Brook began to play a cheerful tune and Franky got teary eyed of having their swordsman back to normal, Lexi pretending to ignore Zoro didn't fool anyone, Robin drinking her coffee with that secret smile she liked to wear, Usopp telling Nami some story he just came up with and Luffy laughing loudly through it all while shoveling food into his bottomless belly.

At the end of the meal a seemingly pissed of Sanji confronted Zoro.

"Oi marimo, why are you not eating?"

"Not your business ero-cook!"

"Sorry to disappoint you but it's very much my business, i'm the cook remember."

Zoro just stared at him angrily and while conscious about the wary looks the others were giving him.

"I don't have an appetite." He finally sighed in defeat as no one seemed to come to his rescue.

"Zoro what's wrong?" Chopper said worriedly.

"It's nothing Chopper."

"Hell it's nothing marimo." Sanji said angrily. He knew the marimo was hiding something from them.

Chopper, also him realizing that Zoro was hiding something said in an angry tone. "If you don't tell us right now what's going on I will tell them all about that incident!"

Zoro looked at him in shock upon realizing the threat. After considering it he quickly decided that having the crew know about that incident was worse than them knowing what was going on right now. The other crew members were surprised to know that their swordsman were hiding something so big from them that he let himself be forced to tell them.

He looked down at his plate and sighed. "It hurts to eat so I rather not." He said in shame and hung his head lower.

"What do you mean shithead? Explain!"

"Looking at it makes me nauseas and when it goes down, my throat and stomach burns."

"Those are side effect from all the drugs you've been taking these past couple of days. I'm sorry Zoro but you'll just have to endure it." Chopper said sternly which granted him an angry stare from the swordsman.

"Oi, shithead, you're not leaving this room until you've finished everything on that plate."

"Captain! Tell them to leave me alone!"

"Yada!"

"Luffy!"

"Yada! If I'm not allowed to eat your food you have to eat it yourself!" Everyone looked at him with wide eyes.

"Eat!" Sanji said threateningly.

And so the swordsman began to eat. He ate painfully slowly and by the end of it his face had a taint of green to it. Noticing that he was at his limit Sanji took his plate and deemed it was enough for now and decided that he would make Zoro's plates smaller for the time being. The remaining of lunch had passed in awkward silence, where Luffy, Sanji and Chopper had watched Zoro the entire time. The rest of the crew didn't know what to think. Just having Zoro admit that he was in pain and clearly showing it on his face clearly indicated that this pain he experienced was worse than any other cuts the crew had seen him receive.

Now that everyone was done they began to make their way out with the exception of Franky and Sanji whom were on dish washing duty today. As Zoro stood up to leave he suddenly felt lightheaded and would have fallen to the floor if Lexi hadn't noticed and quickly supported him. One arm surrounding his waist and the other keeping his arm over her shoulders.

"You ok?" She said worriedly.

When the world had stopped spinning and he was able to breath properly he opened his eye and peeked down at his rescuer. Big green eyes with long dark eyelashes looked up at him straight into his eyes. Her pink plump lips pouted as she looked at him worriedly. Taking this all in, said swordsman began to flush as the thought of kissing her passed his mind.

"Zoro, I don't know how but you look both pale and red, are you having a fever?"

He cleared his throat before replying in his hoarse voice. "I'm just a bit tired, nothing to worry about." He removed himself gently from her supporting grip and then headed out a bit unsteadily to the mens quarters to get some rest.

Zoro ended up sleeping the rest of the day and the whole night through. The next two days at sea passed uneventful as the crew went on in their normal crazy way. However on the third day a storm was about to come.

 **Hope you liked this one, and look forward to the next chapter ^^**


	7. Chapter 7

**Enjoy ^^!**

Chapter 7

"Luffy, everyone! A storm is coming prepare the ship!"

"Eh? How do you know?"

"I just do! Now get going!"

"But it's so sunny?" Usopp complained.

As he finished his sentence dark clouds were suddenly above them and heavy rain began to pour down. The wind were slicing them from every direction and everyone hurried to put the ship in order. Nami's storm had indeed come.

Zoro still shirtless from Choppers examination hurried to tie the ropes but with his lack of strength it was too much for him and Sanji soon came to help him. All of a sudden they heard Luffy scream.

"Booshiiiiiii!"

Luffy came swinging for his hat but as he closed in on it a huge wave hit the ship and splashed him, he suddenly got weakened and lost his grip on what he was holding and flew across, colliding with Lexi and sending them both over the railing.

"Shit! Sanji, get the hat I will get them!"

"Wait…!" but too late, Zoro had already dived into the sea so Sanji tried his best and after some struggling manage to get a hold of the straw hat. He ran to the galley and put the straw hat in one of the drawers to keep it safe before running out again and trying to help Nami manage Sunny. They were now three men down of handling the ship and it took a lot of them to keep her steady.

"Everyone watch out!" Robin yelled.

"Wave incoming!" Franky shouted. They all looked up to see a huge wave approaching.

"Chopper turn the ship away from it! Franky be ready with coup de vent!"

"Nami it's done!" Chopper yelled.

"Ok, everyone hold on! Coup de vent in 3…2…1.!" Sunny flew forward even faster than the tsunami and soon they had managed to outrun it. When everything had calmed down they met up on deck.

"Is everyone ok?" Nami asked.

They all nodded and tried to wrung out the water out off their soaked clothes. Then everyone stopped, a moment and silence and then…

"Luffy that idiot! managed to get himself and Lexi overboard!" Sanji shrieked in panic.

""NANIII!"" Everyone yelled.

"Zoro is also gone." Brook commented.

"He jumped in after them so they should be safe." Sanji said slowly while pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no!"

"What's wrong Chopper?"

"Zoro is in no condition to swim. I had just finished his examination when the storm hit. His lungs aren't as capable as before, he can't hold his breath! Also his body can't cope with too much physical activity, just keeping himself above the water will be a struggle right now."

"We have to follow the log pose and try to get back."

"Hai, Nami-swan!" Sanji cooed. They all got ready to find their friends.

—-

Zoro dived into the dark water. He closed his eyes and tried to sense his surroundings, there below to his right he could sense two presences. Quickly he swam and grabbed a hold of Luffy and Lexi with one arm each, holding them around their waist. Zoro furrowed his brows as he began to ascend. Suddenly his body had started to ache, to feel weak, it was hard to kick with his legs and the surface felt far away. A few bubbles left his mouth as he winced in pain, the pain coming from his chest. _No, how can I already be out of breath? This is wrong, I can usually hold my breath longer than this, heck I can even fight below water while holding my breath. Piece of shit! I can't give up now, they are counting on me._ With renewed determinacy he ignored the ache in his legs from the lactic acid building up and continued kicking furiously.

Half unconsciously Zoro finally broke the surface gasping for air, the storm was still raging on and the waves were furious. Hurriedly the swordsman hit his both nakama hard in their stomach which made them involuntarily cough. He was relieved to see that they manage to cough up the water they had swallowed. He struggled to keep their heads above the water and as they slowly came to, he sighed in relief.

"Zoro?" Luffy asked weakly.

"Luffy, Lexi, you ok?"

"Tired." They responded in faint voices.

The three of them didn't get much rest as Zoro noticed a tsunami coming their wave.

"LUFFY!" He yelled. "Listen to me, this is important! If you want to survive this and save Lexi you need to wrap yourself to Lexi and I and make sure we stick together as glue. I need my legs completely free, and keep your head in my level! Can you do it?"

Luffy let out a painful groan as he latched himself on Zoro's back and pressed Lexi to his swordsman's chest while wrapping his arms and legs around them and then tying himself into a knot with his arms and legs making sure he wouldn't come loose even if he lost consciousness.

"Zoro, Luffy i'm scared." Lexi whimpered.

"Don't worry, trust me, we will come out of this alive." Zoro said soothingly.

"Zoro won't let us drown." Luffy gave her a weak smile while looking confidently while uttering those words.

"Here it comes! On three, hold your breath for as long as you can, 1…2…3…!"

The wave was hovering over them and they got sucked below the surface where it's strong currents pulled them and threw them around occasionally pushing them deeper into the dark sea. Zoro only focused on holding his breath, trying not to waste his energy. Soon his patience paid off as the water became calmer. This was their chance, with powerful kicks he made their way to the surface, once again with stabbing pain in his chest and a burning sensation in his legs.

Panting he carefully slapped Lexi awake, she only coughed up a tiny bit of water before looking at him dazedly.

"Wake him up." Was all Zoro said as he struggled for air to go down.

"Luffy, Luffy, LUFFY, LUFFY!" When yelling didn't work she head butted her captain. Luckily that made him open his eyes and spit out water.

They were all silent for a while before Luffy whispered. "Zoro, Lexi, i'm sorry…"

"It's fine dumbass!" Zoro said in a snort while Lexi just gave Luffy a smile indicating she was alright.

Suddenly Luffy's head snapped up. "Where is my boshiii?!" He yelled.

"Sanji, caught it, don't worry he kept it safe."

"Eh, guys, Sunny is gone."

"I suspected this might happen. All we can do now is to drift and hope to reach either an island or find a ship."

"Zoro? You're still out of breath?" Luffy asked with a tired yet serious face.

"I'm fine Captain."

Unexpectedly Lexi leaned in and put her forehead to Zoro's. "You're warm as well." She said concerned.

Zoro sighed. "Fine! I feel like shit and my body feels weak, but there's nothing we can do about it right now. All we can do is drift! Now don't talk preserve your strength, we don't know for how long we will be stuck here. And don't fall asleep, keep an eye on each other!"

Luffy and Lexi gave each other a look as they were both surprised that the proud swordsman actually had admitted to feeling bad.

Hours passed with no one talking. The sky was clear blue without a single cloud in the sky and the sun was scorching hot. Lexi and Luffy were both as tightly secured as before the tsunami and their heads hung low as they were low on energy.

Ever since the three of them had settled to their own thoughts Zoro had encountered something problematic and frustrating. _I'm not supposed to feel this way. Damn Luffy! Why did you wrap us up like this. I can't get distracted in this way, but I can feel everything…Her firm breasts pressed to my chest, her breath in my ear, her skin and waist under my hands…! Damn Luffy! When we get out of this shit I will kill you. I can't let neither of them down… I've already passed my limit, but I won't give in to exhaustion, I can do that later, when they're safe…_

More hours passed, and the sky became dark, the storm that had occurred in the morning seemed so long ago. The devil fruit users were getting less and less responsive as the sea drained them off their energy. Zoro wasn't that much better off. His temperature had risen some more, and he was sweating profusely. He was still kicking hard as to prevent them from sinking, Luffy and Lexi being like hammers in the water constantly trying to drag them down.

Zoro looked up at the sky to find that the stars now were shining down on them. _Stars huh… Chopper likes to look at the stars. Kuina did as well. Kuina? Are you there? Do you look down once or twice to see how i'm doing? On our path to becoming the best, is it wrong of me to develop feelings for someone else? Kuina, i'm confused, never have I felt like this before. I'm scared that I will fail them, my crew you know. My strength is no more and I admit I feel fear that I will be unable to keep going until we get help. Please Kuina if you're out there somewhere please help me through, help me save my nakama._ Zoro barely noticed a star blinking above him, as if saying it heard him. He felt a fuzzy shiver run through him, and he smiled thinking that his old rival indeed had heard him.

The night passed and the three strawhats were at their limits. Zoro's eyes were glazed over and he didn't respond to neither of his nakama as they tried to get some contact with him, but still his legs never stopped kicking.

When the sun stood at it's highest they could hear shouts. Neither of them could put any energy into reacting to it. They heard a splash next to them and then they realized someone was tying a rope around them. Luffy and Lexi looked up to see a large ship next to them, they gave each other a weak smile before passing out. They were saved for now…

 **This was all for this week, next chapter will be up next weekend ^^**


	8. Chapter 8

**I can barely believe how fast this week has passed! I also want you readers to know how appreciative I am for every favorite/follow and review that I get. It really makes me happy knowing that you like my story 3**

Chapter 8

"They don't seem so tough now, don't they?" A rough dark voice said smugly.

Zoro awoke to his body being in pain and he realized that he had just been kicked to his ribs by a man standing above him, probably the man that had just spoken.

First he wondered where he was but slowly the memories came back to him and he looked around him in panic. They seemed to be in some kind of cell and with how the floor beneath him was moving he concluded that they must be on a ship. He let a breath out as he saw his two crew mates (unfortunately they were chained with Kairoseki), but it turned into a growl as two other men kicked Lexi and Luffy. With incredible speed he stood up and rammed the man hovering over Lexi and kicked the one in front of Luffy.

"Luffy, crawl over to Lexi and protect her. Don't do anything, only protect her and just let me handle it." He said lowly as Luffy gave a weak nod before crawling over the floor to his nakama. Zoro placed himself in front of the other two facing their captors. They watched him with amused smiles as he swayed in place.

"Who are you?" Zoro asked seriously.

"Haha, who we are, you ask? Well Roronoa Zoro we are the Vengeance Pirates with personal hostility towards your crew and you especially." Zoro raised an eyebrow and continued looking at the muscular man standing in front of him. "Let me explain, in your days as a bounty hunter you turned in the fathers, brothers and husbands of many of my crew. Also during your stay in Whiskey Peak and Alabasta your crew killed and turned in many close friends and relatives to us."

"They deserved what they got." Was the response he received.

"Well when we are done with you and ready to throw you to the fishes at sea, you will have gotten what you deserved as well." He looked the swordsman over and then gave a command to his crew. "Start with the girl, maybe breaking her leg will do the other two some good."

Zoro got a furious spark to his eyes and the pirates stopped in their tracks hesitating. "There is no point of you doing it, you won't be able to even scratch them."

"And why not?" The muscular captain asked with a smirk. "They are both chained with seastone to their wrists and ankles, they won't be able to do any resistance."

"I'm well aware of that, however the moment you take a step towards them I will kill you, hurting them right now is an impossibility."

The man gave him a glare. "You seem too weak to be able to do that." He said with squinted eyes. Zoro's usually tanned skin was pale and he was sweating without exertion. He had also lost some weight after his sickness period.

"You're right i'm a bit weakened at the moment, but the question is how many men will you lose before i get tired?"

Animosity could be felt in the air as the captain understood the dilemma he was in. He should have chained the swordsman more securely before he had woken up.

"Then why don't we make a deal… We won't touch your companions as long as you let us torture you, but as soon as you're unable to protect them, we will start on your friends."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that if I was you. I bet that you won't be able to lay a single finger on my captain and nakama."

"And why's that?"

"They're counting on me." He said simply.

"Fine, if that's the way you want. I assume you wont escape on your own and you're in no condition to carry both of them anywhere, also we're at sea so there would be nowhere for you to escape to. Boys unlock his handcuffs and you can start playing with him, remember to keep him alive, the dead do not suffer."

"But captain if we release his handcuffs he might attack us."

"Roronoa Zoro is a man of his words." The captain said simply. "He won't go against us unless we brake the contract first."

"I won't resist your, let's call it treatment, however if you as much as take a step in their direction I will kill you on the spot." The tone of his voice was low and poisonous, his eyes bore into his captors and they knew the threat was real.

"Very well, I will inform the rest of my crew about the conditions. Boys have fun!" The captain left with his first mate a step behind him. Three men and one woman remained. They closed the jail door with a click and observed him. One average looking man who didn't seem too strong walked up to Zoro, he grabbed him by the throat and before Zoro knew it he was slammed into the floor, momentarily out of breath.

The woman walked up to him and kicked his ribs. "You sent my fiancé to Impel Down, I will never forgive you!" And so the torture started, Luffy and Lexi were too weakened to even move so all they could do was to sob quietly.

—

Luffy grit his teeth, watching his first mate take on the pain that should partly have been his. He wouldn't forgive Zoro easily for this. Even though the tears were running down his cheeks he looked on forcing himself to view his best friend's battle. Zoro was strong, Zoro wouldn't scream, Zoro taunted them, Zoro told them to do their worst, Zoro told them how weak they were. Even as they snapped his leg breaking it in pieces he would smirk at them and challenge them with a look. He was out of breath but who could blame him, most people in his situation would have already passed out from the torture or died. They were now playing with his broken leg. Holding him down and hurting him even more around that broken area. After what felt like several hours a man came down and whispered something to the torturers, they each gave Zoro a kick somewhere to his body before they exited leaving the strawhats alone.

As soon as they were gone Zoro closed his eyes and his body began to convulse. Unable to do anything Luffy worried beyond his mind called out to his friend, over and over, panic rising as the body wouldn't stop shaking. After about 2 minutes Zoro's body got still. He slowly opened his eye and turned it toward Luffy.

"Luffy i'm fine." He managed to say in a rough voice before he coughed violently. Seeing that his nakama were still very upset he dragged himself with big effort over the dusty floor to their side. He sat himself in between them and pulled them close to him, he put their heads on each side of his lap and gently stroke their arms soothingly.

"Everything will be alright, I can handle it, all you need to do is rest and wait for the others, we will pull through this."

"You're lying." Lexi sobbed. "You're not fine at all. You're still sick from before, you haven't recovered yet."

"Still, I will not let anyone lay a hand on either of you. My endurance is higher than you think." He rubbed his finger gently on her cheek. "Luffy?"

"Why did you agree to his deal?"

"As I am now I can't guarantee that you won't get hurt, but now all I need to do is endure and not lose consciousness."

"I'm not going to forgive you for this."

"I know, but for now we shall all just get some sleep." As he said that, he held them a bit tighter and closed his eye. Within seconds he was sleeping completely passed out, not even snoring as he would normally do.

 **Next update will be up next week ^^ until then have a good week!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Thank you for continue reading and I apologize for the delay in update, don't really have an excuse so just sorry #^^#!**

 **Enjoy ^^**

Chapter 9

They didn't get many hours of sleep before someone shouted.

"Oi, your piece of crap! It's time for us to have some fun with you!"

Zoro opened his eye and looked down on the two heads on his lap. Luffy's eyes were shut close and his face was distorted in an angry grimace, but Zoro knew this was the face he made when holding back his tears. Lexi on the other hand was looking up at him with already tears streaming down and a scared face. Zoro hugged their shoulders quickly and whispered so only they could hear. "I won't let them so much as touch a hair on you." He then released them and made his way to sit in front of them, back facing them. He looked at his captors with a grin and said confidently. "Then start your fun, but remember any indication of you even walking towards them and I will kill you."

The torturers around all hissed in anger. They wanted nothing more than to just hurt the swordsman, and soon enough they did.

Throughout the day different men and women of the crew came to the cell to exact their vengeance. The only breaks the swordsman would get were when a new group came in to change with the previous one. By the end of the day Zoro could no longer sit up, they had stripped him of his clothes to the point he was only wearing his boxers. All over his body he had the signs of torture. The point from where he was bleeding were too many to even count, on several places pieces of metal splinters were embedded in his body and the edges were even sticking out from his skin. All four limbs were broken. His stomach and chest burnt. At this point Zoro was barely even breathing. This continued for two more whole days.

"Hey that crap is barely alive anymore, let's do some work on the other two." What the man said was true, Zoro was barely alive, he was even barely conscious about his surroundings. But as he felt the man step on that invisible line in the cell that meant they were going for his nakama, he shot up and grabbed the man's neck from behind. "I warned you that I would kill anyone intending on hurting my nakama." After finishing the sentence a loud pang was heard as Zoro crushed his neck with his bare hand. They both fell to ground, one man dead and the other barely alive.

"Holy shit, he killed Ruso!"

"How is that even possible? His limbs are broken!"

"Anyway, we should get the captain."

After the men had left in panic, Luffy noticed that his swordsman wasn't moving or seemingly awake. "Zoro, Zoro, Zoro…Zoro?"

"I'm fine Luffy. You two only need to think about preserving your strength. We will need it when the time comes." He managed to say, still unmoving and with his eye half open.

Lexi being the weaker in strength compared to Luffy were laying unconscious on the floor and had so been for the last couple of hours. Having never touched sea water before and then gotten chained with seastone, Lexi had no longer any energy left for awareness, her body was set on survival and only worked now to sustain her life. Luffy having been exposed to seastone and sea water several times were handling the situation better, he would be able to stay conscious for a few more days if he didn't move around he thought.

Luffy felt as if his blood was boiling from the anger and frustration he was feeling, at this point all he could do was to turn his head and keep his eyes open. He was supposed to be stronger, he was to be the one they could rely on, he was supposed to never let anyone of his nakama die. But right now he felt worthless, beaten by the sea, it wasn't much he could do but see his first mate suffer.

It didn't take long until the captain came back with his crew. There was a bit of silence before he asked someone to remove the body.

"But captain what if he attacks us too?"

"As long as you don't go for those two he will stay put."

"But, but."

"Just do it!"

Two men carefully went forward and grabbed the man's ankles as they dragged him out of the cell.

"Clean him up. We will say some words and bury him in the morning."

The two men disappeared up the stairs with their dead weight.

"Is that all?"

"What do you mean, Nika?"

"You're not going to punish him for killing my brother?" A woman with blonde short hair said angrily.

"I don't see how much more we can punish him."

"So you're just going to leave it as it is?"

"I never said that."

"So what?"

"He was supposed to sleep now but since this occurrence happened i'm letting you have some time with him. Feel free to do whatever you wish to him, except killing him of course. I think we can both agree on that a dead man does not suffer."

"Thank you captain."

"If that was all…?" The captain was about to leave when the woman Nika said.

"Also, could you ask Lao and Tsukoyo to come down and help me, also to bring some salt?"

"Very well." Without another word the man left.

Luffy saw the woman from the corner of his eye. Everything was a bit blurry but he could see her clear enough. She was looking at Zoro with hate in her eyes, her head was bent a bit forward and her blond bangs gave her scary shadows under her eyes. The way she was playing with her knife and smiling smugly made him fear. This woman was scaring him down to his core, scaring because of the things she would do to Zoro.

Two men returned which Luffy assumed to be Lao and Tsukoyo. They were both big reminding him of Franky.

"Nika?" One of them asked.

"I thought since the two of you haven't had a go with him yet you wouldn't mind giving me a hand in what i have planned."

"Sure, waiting all this time has been frustrating enough. So what do you want us to do?"

"One of you hold down his shoulders and the other stabilize his right leg."

They did as she said and when they were set she began to work with her knife, she was slowly skinning Zoro's foot, giggling as his body shook from the pain. Zoro might not have screamed but his face and body did. After around an hour, the wicked woman giggled a bit louder before whispering. "I wonder how you will take this." She took a pinch of salt and spread it over his now skinned foot. His entire body began to convulse and then he just shut down. Never had Luffy been so happy that his swordsman had fainted. Finally oblivion had released him of some of his pain.

"Oh shit, that's right. Sima wanted him to drink this to prepare him for tomorrow."

"What is that?"

"Special water." Tsukoyo gave her a wink. He began to slap Zoro's face until he weakly opened his eye. All Zoro could see was the mug of water, therefore he didn't resist as it came closer to his lips. He drank it hungrily that is until his insides began to burn hotter than fire and his head to explode as if thousands of needles were in it.

When it passed, he just laid on the ground spasming. The three torturers laughed out loud at the little display before they locked the cell and went to go to sleep.

Never had Luffy felt such hatred…

 **Once again sorry for the delay! Won't happen next time ^^**


	10. Chapter 10

**New chapter up! Be prepared for a lot of dialogue in this one. Thank you to all who's reading this little story and special thanks to Polyamory for continous reviews and honest opinion ^^ Now enjoy!**

Chapter 10

The next morning Zoro's eye was open as a thin elderly man came in with a few other men and women, also the captain was present. He watched the man with hostility as he came forward holding a bowl in front of him. Suddenly him and the few other people people in the room could hear Luffy's angry voice, a bit stronger than it had been the past days. "Zoro don't die, stay alive! Captain's order!" The older man ignored Luffy and continued until he sat in front of Zoro, he said with a clear and loud voice.

"Young man… you sent my three sons to death at Whiskey Peak, no punishment is strong enough for your crimes."

He forced Zoro's mouth open and poured the liquid in the bowl into his mouth. Soon the effect began to work and Zoro was once again shaking. For the first time in four days of torture he let out a scream. With that one scream out, the rest continued to come out as well. When the effects ran out he was actually sobbing loudly.

"Zoro, you cannot die! You hear me? I'm not allowing you to leave my crew!"

"Ai, Captain!" Zoro sobbed.

The man approached him once again, and gave him another bowl with some liquid in it. Zoro cried harder as the man forced the liquid down his throat. This time his body fell limp, not even his eye could move, he was aware that he was on the ground on his back, then suddenly something graced his belly and an overwhelming pain passed through that area. The screams coming out his mouth did no longer sound human.

"Professor Sima, how did you manage that?"

"Captain, it's a special serum that i made. In the first bowl I gave him the liquid enters his blood as soon as it hits his stomach and it makes all the vessels in his body burn. The other bowl contains a serum that will make his body paralyzed except for his vocal cords and increase his sensitivity to touch so anything that will touch him will send pain in that localized area.

"Very impressive professor. However won't he die?"

"Not likely, the blood boiling serum is not in effect for so long for it to make deathly damage, and the other is just messing with his brain. With these serums one could torture a person for an eternity"

Applauses could be heard, it seemed that most of the crew had come downstairs after hearing those screams.

"The only problem is that the second serum runs out to fast out of his system." He said as he forced Zoro to drink another bowl. This time he touched Zoro's forehead…

In the afternoon most of the crew was still there to watch and enjoy their enemy getting tortured with the substances. However… after the last time he got the blood boiling serum something seemed to snap in the swordsman. As the effects ran out he began to laugh a crazed laughter. Sima took a step back from their prisoner. The crew held their breath thinking they had finally managed to break Pirate-Hunter Roronoa Zoro. Then the unexpected happened… he just stopped and stared up with a glazed eye.

"We did it!" Someone shouted happily, "We finally managed to break his mind!"

The fool and three others ran forward in joy to kick the other two mugiwaras, but once again when they crossed that invisible line, they all fell dead on the spot. In front of them stood Zoro, with a knife in his hand. Horrified the crew yelled in fear as they realized that he had stolen the knife from the attackers he had just murdered during their attack.

As they fell in front of him his eye shined red and an inhuman laugh sounded through the room. He licked the blade of the knife he had stolen and said with a wicked tone.

"I suggest you to leave our cell this instant or I will kill anyone in sight. I, am tired of your childish games."

They watched the swordsman with horrified expressions. His limbs were visibly broken, his foot was skinned, his body was marred with holes and old and new blood was constantly mixed all over him from head to toe.

"DEMON!" "DEMON!" "HE IS A DEMON!" THE DEVIL REINCARNATED!" "A DEMON PERSONIFIED!" "DEMON!"

It was chaos as everyone tried to escape through stairs to get up on deck and away from the demon. When only the mugiwaras were left with the cell open, Zoro just sat down beside the corpses and absently stabbed them through the heads and torsos.

—

 _Up on deck…_

"Captain what should we do?"

"This has gone out of hand, that is not a human, that is a monster."

"Nothing human could stand up after that!"

"Break his mind we sure did, but who could have expected that to happen?"

"Captain, Marines up ahead!"

"Oh shit! Just our luck!"

"Captain they're catching up on us!"

"Everyone prepare to battle!"

Within 5 minutes the marine ship had latched onto the pirate ship and a full scale battle emerged. The pirate ship was nothing compared to the marine ship and it's experienced crew, and soon the marines had them all in handcuffs and in the cells of the marine ship.

"Smoker-san, there is no one else left up on deck."

"Well done Tashigi… huh?"

A horrified marine came up from some stairs. "Smoker-san, Tashigi-senpai!" Before he continued he emptied his stomach on the deck.

"Boy, what's wrong?" Smoker asked cautiously.

"Strawhat Luffy and Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro are down there together with an unidentified girl, but…but…" The marine turned pale as he recalled the grotesque scene down below.

"Roronoa!"

"Mugiwara!"

Without a second to spare a very alert Smoker and Tashigi ran downstairs and froze at the sight in front of them. The strawhat captain and a girl laid limp on the floor, in front of them were three cut up bodies, new and old blood everywhere on the ground mixed with cerebral contents and in the middle of all sat Roronoa Zoro. Almost naked and with a destroyed body he sat on the floor looking down a blood drenched knife that was laying a few feet away from him, it looked like he was trying to wipe his hands on the floor but not managing as the floor around him was as bloody as his hands and body. As they got closer they could hear him mumble incoherent words.

After swallowing their shock they took a few more steps closer to the cell. Zoro stilled and lift his head and just looked at them with a glazed eye.

"Stop, don't come any closer, Smoker!" Luffy's weak outburst stopped the two marines in their tracks.

"What do you mean?" Smoker asked confused, thinking that Luffy had been unconscious.

"Zoro is sick, he is not thinking right now, if you come closer he will kill you in an instant."

Smoker and Tashigi were now right outside the cell. They were both shocked as the boy began to bawl. "Don't huwt him anywore, pwease! This is enough! I want Brook to pway us a song! To see Franky's new invention! I want to hwear Usopp's stories! I want to see Robin weading on deck! I wan't to eat the food Sanji makes! I want to pway with Chopper! I want to hear Nami navigate Sunny! I want to hear Wexi waugh! But most of all, I want to see Zowo take a nap out in the sun!" The pent up frustration and tears he had held back for days suddenly burst out. He was weeping like a child pleading the marines not to hurt his swordsman any further.

"What did they do to him?" Tashigi asked no one in particular. However the sound of her voice carried to the swordsman ears, and all of a sudden he just looked afraid. His hands shot to his head and he started a loud conversation with himself or to someone or something, they couldn't really figure out.

"No, no! No, it was my fault! Kuina! I'm so sorry! It's all my fault! Your dream, yes the dream, I will fulfill your dream. Wado? Wado!? No, where is Wado Ichimonji? You is Wado! Wado is your spirit! Wado is our promise! Kuina, Wado is safe, I put her away only. Wado, Kuina. Kuina, Wado. Hahahaha! Yes we will become the best swordsmen together, Kuina you and I. With Wado. Hahaha! Becoming the best swordsman, yes, with Wado, means you're the best. I never beat you and will never be able to, therefore if I become the best you will still be better! Hahahahaha! Forgive me, Kuina. It's all my fault! Dead! Death! Guilt! Death! These piece of shit, trying to hurt my nakama! Kill, kill, kill! DIE! DIE! DIE!" Through the whole monolog he had been weeping and shaking but as soon as he laid eye on the corpses his face turned into rage and he picked up the knife and began to stab them again. After a moment though he gave a shout and dropped the knife. The expression on his face was pure horror and disgust, he crawled back, and turned his head and vomited blood and bile.

Smoker and Tashigi were frozen to their place as they saw Zoro vomit, he then fell to the floor with a loud thud, and his body began to convulse. They both recognized it as a seizure. When it passed he laid there panting before sitting up and laughing, this time staring at a wall."

The two marines left to go up on deck again. They were both quiet as the other marines saluted them and waited for their orders. Seeing that neither of them were going to start talking, the marine boy who had approached them earlier asked what they were all wondering.

"Smoker-san, what will we do with the prisoners?"

"We will get them back to their crew."

"But, what about their bounties?"

"Whatever sins they've committed they have paid for it and more to last several life times. No one is to go down there, Roronoa Zoro is currently unstable, being downstairs is not safe."

"How are we supposed to contact the Strawhats?"

"Tashigi get me 'the' Den, den Mushi from my office."

Without a word she left, and a couple of minutes later she came back with what he had asked. During the time she had been away Smoker had ordered his crew to go back to their own ship and stay on alert.

Tashigi handed him the device and he dialed the number to the Sunny.

 **"Hello?"**

"This is Smoker from the marines, who am I speaking to?"

 **"This is Nico Robin, but you are on speaker so the rest can hear you as well."**

"Very well…"

 **"Before you continue, may I ask how you got our number?"**

"A while back your captain and I thought it best in prospect of future negotiations."

 **"Then, why are you calling now?"**

"A few hours back, my ship spotted a pirate ship. We captured it but we found something unexpected in their cells…"

 **"Go on…"**

"Strawhat Luffy, a girl and Roronoa Zoro."

 **"And you're telling us this because…?"**

"They are waiting for you…Listen Luffy and that girl are wearing seastone cuffs, but we can't get to them."

 **"What do you mean, 'you can't get to them'? Are you implying you want to set them free, what about Zoro?"**

"Ok, I will be blunt. The pirates we captured seemed to have tortured Roronoa to the point he has gone mental, the other two are not physically hurt but the seastone seem to have drained their life energy quite a lot. We don't know how long they've been there."

 **"You still haven't answered my questions."**

"The answer is that your swordsman seems to kill anyone who steps anywhere in range right now. He's delirious and looks like something that is supposed to be dead. The reason i'm telling you is that I'm not heartless and those idiots have had enough, so hurry your shitty ship over here and take them back will ya, or they might die!"

" **Cordinates**?" Another female asked.

"…"

 **"We will be there within 1 hour."**

"I have ordered my crew to stay on our own ship, only Tashigi and I will be present onboard. You're free to latch onto the other side of the ship."

 **"Thank you."**

Both parts hung up…

 **This was all for this week and next week I will upload two chapters so look forward to it!**


	11. Chapter 11

**After this chapter there are some chapters that are much shorter therefore I will upload two chapters a week to compensate starting with Wednesday. I hope you will enjoy this ^^ Have a good read!**

 **Chapter 11**

The two marines observed as the strawhats boarded the ship, it seemed they had left the sniper to guard the ship. Cat Burglar Nami led the group up to the two marines. When she stood face to face with Smoker her angry facade slipped off for less than a second and beneath were a worried and tired face.

"Follow us!" Right before entering they stopped and Tashigi spoke for the first time after having been there before.

"I warn you, it's very grotesque, he's…he's not himself." With that they continued down the stairs. Smoker and Tashigi stepped to the side when they reached the bottom to give space for the other crew.

Nami clasped her hands to her mouth when she saw the state of the cell and it's inhabitants, Robin's face turned white from anger. Sanji dropped his cigarette, Franky had tears running, Brook just looked furious. Chopper walked right into the cell while the others stood a bit behind.

"Zoro?" He asked carefully.

Hearing the sound he started laughing and awkwardly standing up with the knife pointing at them while dripping blood. "Ghosts, ghosts, ghosts! Hahahaha! WHO ARE YOU?!" He suddenly yelled.

"Zoro…we are nakama…" Chopper said slowly.

"Nakama? Nakama…No, no, no! Our nakama will come! DON'T HURT MY NAKAMA! I WILL KILL ANYONE WHO WANTS TO HURT MY NAKAMA!" Zoro's body was shaking.

"Zoro, I promise we are nakama, I'm Chopper, we have to go back to Sunny." Chopper said, still in a calm soothing voice. Brook took out his violin and began to play a calm soothing song, a song Zoro had told him reminded him of the bond the crew shared.

They could see something flicker in his eye, but as quickly as it came it was gone again. Even if words weren't getting through the music seemed to relax him a bit and his eye got glazed over again.

"Zoro? Zoro? Zoro?" Luffy's weak voice asked repeatedly until Zoro seemed to regain some consciousness.

"I'm fine Luffy…"

"Zoro, they are nakama let them through, Captain's order."

"They are our nakama?"

"Yes Zoro they are nakama."

Hearing those words, what seemed like relief passed through the swordsman's face before his eye rolled back and he fell to floor with a thud, he then began to seizing again. Chopper seeing that they would no longer be killed ran up to him and quickly examined him all over. "Hurry give me four wooden planks!"

"I have a better idea." Smoker said and wrapped his smoke around Zoro.

"Take him to the Sunny, and tell Usopp to show you to the infirmary, and prepare CODE BLACK EVERYTHING, I will follow in a moment."

Smoker nodded and ran up with his load. Tashigi threw the seastone keys that they had obtained from the pirate captain to the orange haired woman named Nami. She swiftly caught it and hurriedly unlocked the cuffs. The moment the cuffs were gone Chopper were by their sides.

"Chopper… Lexi has been sleeping since yesterday." Hearing this Chopper quickly turned his attention to the girl, he could feel a faint pulse and weak breathing. He took something out of his bag and put it in her mouth. He then proceeded to give her a shot of something only he knew.

"Nami, Robin, take her quickly to the bath and clean her well. What she and Luffy need is rest. I ask you to put her in her own bed and prepare a bed in your room for Luffy as well." Without a second to spare the girls obeyed and carried the girl in between them.

"Luffy?"

"Chopper, you must save Zoro! Zoro is sick! Zoro…!" The last energy of the captain ran out and his eyes closed. Chopper hurriedly checked his vitals and sighed in relief when he didn't find anything abnormal.

"Franky, can you please take him. Give him a bath and put him into bed in the girls' room."

Before leaving the room, Chopper glanced over the room once more taking in the blood, vomit, bile, brain contents and corpses spread out on the floor. Facing the stairs his face was contorted in anger and Tashigi flinched as she saw the animalistic glint in his eyes telling her he wanted someone to pay for this.

—-

For an entire night Chopper worked in the infirmary. Nobody was allowed to come in or even knock. When Nami had asked how Zoro was he had yelled at her screaming that they would know when he knew. After that they settled on sitting on deck and waiting.

The next morning Chopper came out of the infirmary door and the crew stood up in expectation waiting for news. The reindeer however chose to ignore them and walked straight passed them to go onboard the other pirate ship, when he noticed that Sanji was about to open the infirmary door he turned around and yelled at him with a furious face and tone. "Don't open that door!" He proceeded on his mission over to the next ship. A couple of minutes later Chopper came up in sight again but instead of coming back he walked over to the marine ship.

"Smoker-san! The Mugiwara pet is here!"

"I'm not a pet! I'm the ship's doctor! If you don't let me pass I will kill all of you!" The marines around were terrified hearing those words from Chopper's small form.

Smoker hurriedly came up on deck and asked the little reindeer. "What do you want?"

"I need to talk to your prisoners."

Smoker studied him for a moment and then gave his approval. "Follow me."

Under deck with the prisoners Smoker watched the little reindeer study the prisoners before he chose a cell and entered it. He walked straight up to an old gray haired man. He suddenly changed into his human form and lifted the man by his throat towards the wall. The rest of the prisoners scared beyond their minds, whispered monster.

"I know it was you. You smell just like it. Since you found so much pleasure in hurting my nakama with your concoction I wanted you to know what he felt." The old man's eyes widened in terror. Chopper forced the man's mouth opened and poured a liquid into it. Soon the man was screaming and trashing against his captor. When it settled and the man panted heavily Chopper asked him if he wanted another round.

Chopper didn't give him any more of it but proceeded to sniff out particular prisoners and give them the same treatment. He then stopped and asked. "Who skinned his foot and put salt on it?" Nobody answered him as they were too scared. "Either you tell me who did it or I will skin all of you!" Both men and women began to cry as they pointed out the vile woman who had done it. He walked up to her and cut off a piece of her skin from her foot. She screamed in pain but Chopper ignored her. He took out another little bottle from his backpack and forced the liquid down her throat. Her body fell limp, Chopper then proceeded with taking out some salt and spread it in her open wound. The woman began to scream and scream until her body couldn't take it any more. When it wore off she curled up in a ball and began to cry.

"Who is the captain?" Chopper asked in a deathly voice.

This time there was no response. Smoker having paled from the performance decided to help him.

"It's the big guy in that cell."

Chopper gave him a nod in appreciation and sat down in front of the man. Neither of them spoke but only stared each other down. Finally the captain gave in and whispered.

"He deserved it, all of it." Apparently this was the wrong thing to say as Chopper reached forward and cut his tongue off.

Then man whimpered as blood was pouring out. Chopper gave him a shot and the bleeding quickly stopped. The man had now curled up to the wall and looked at Chopper with terrified eyes.

"Now, who is the first mate?"

The scared prisoners having giving up on whatever loyalty they might have had pointed at a tall man in the same cell as the captain.

"I want you to tell me everything the crew put Roronoa Zoro through."

"I don't know all of it."

"You're free to ask your friends or tell them to tell me." Chopper brought out a notebook from his blue little backpack and began taking notes as the first mate spilled the information and told various members to confess to what their group had done when they had their torture time.

When Chopper were done with taking notes he put his notebook back, and stood tall in the cell and spoke with an authoritative voice.

"I will tell you scum about Roronoa Zoro. He is a man who lives by his swords and words. A more loyal creature I have never seen and will never hear about. You scum call him a demon but he is everything but. That man that you tried to break is now alive because of his loyalty. The reason he is still not dead is because he received a Captain's Order not to die. You scum drove my captain to utter such a selfish order I feel like I want to torture you for years. If it was possible I would ask my captain to order him to die so that he would be able to rest and stop his suffering, but you know what, I can't because I know Zoro will pull through this and come back. That man has been living by a promise since he was a child, and just by staying alive he is honoring that promise. Neither person on my crew is bad nor evil, but Zoro is the most truthful to himself and my closest nakama! You hurt him, and now i'm going to hurt you!"

Chopper stood up from his seat and grabbed the captain, he injected something in him and stared into the man's eyes for a minute or two before proceeding to the next person. When he had done it to the entire pirate crew he stood tall and said. "Whenever you sleep, you will be hunted by your biggest fear. If i've understood it correctly that fear will be the man you saw in the cell, a man that is for you Roronoa Zoro the Demon incarnated. May you be hunted forever." With those words Chopper turned his back on them and changed back to his brain point. When up on deck Chopper asked Smoker timidly.

"Could you please let me clean myself up before going back?" Smoker just nodded weakly before shouting to a man to show Chopper the way. It didn't take long before Chopper was done and ready to go back.

"Smoker, you are really kind. Thank you for telling us about our nakama and thank you for letting me talk to the prisoners." Chopper gave him a huge smile and hugged his leg quickly before running back to his own ship waving happily to the marines.

Smoker stared after him in a daze until Tashigi shook his arm.

"Smoker-san?"

"That little reindeer's wanted poster must get changed. Tell the higher ups to increase his bounty and change the title from pet to pirate doctor."

Tashigi and the rest of the marines stared at him in shock.

"NOW WOMAN!"

Tashigi jumped and ran to make the call to HQ.

 **I hope you enjoyed it! As always I appreciate critics so don't hesitate to give me a review, thank you ^^**


	12. Chapter 12

**As promised here is your mid-week update, I hope you will enjoy it even though it's a bit short. ^^**

 **Chapter 12**

"Look, seems like Chopper is coming back." Sanji said as he lit a new cigarette.

"And he seems happy too." Robin commented.

"He really scared me earlier." Usopp admitted.

But to their disappointment as he got closer to the infirmary he got a sour look on his face, when he reached the door his face was contorted in anger and he slammed the door behind him, not saying a word to the rest of the crew.

Inside the infirmary Chopper sterilized himself and then stood next to Zoro's bed looking down on him.

"Zoro…I might have done something bad…but I was so angry I couldn't let it slip what they did to you. The rest of the crew don't need to know all of it. Don't worry Zoro, I will make you better." He gave a last look over before he began to work.

Zoro was covered in heavy bandages. His limbs were all stabilized and his right skinned foot was hanging free, elevated in the air. Two i.v. lines were connected to his arms, and a mask helped him breath.

The next morning a tired Chopper came out of the infirmary. He was met by serious and questioningly eyes.

"Chopper?" Luffy asked in a low voice. Both him and Lexi had woken up only a few hours earlier and after rushing out of the girls room they had been told that everyone was banned from seeing the swordsman. Upon hearing this they had settled nearby on deck together with the rest of the crew to wait for the doctor to come out and talk to them.

"We all need to talk." Chopper said in an equally serious and low voice.

Luffy nodded and told everyone to head to the kitchen. When everyone was seated Chopper began the meeting with addressing Luffy and Lexi.

"Luffy, Lexi, i'm sorry I haven't properly taken care of you two. How are you feeling?"

"Tired and hungry but other than that I think we are fine." Lexi answered. Both of them did look tired. Even if they had slept a great amount of time they still had dark circles under their eyes and at least Lexi seemed to have lost some weight.

"That's good, I will take a few blood samples later to make sure neither of you got seastone poisoned. Sanji… make sure they eat later…"

Everyone looked at Chopper expectantly but at the same time wary as the tension got heavier in the air as he thought of how to begin. He then gave a big sigh and looked at each and every one of them before starting.

"Zoro is not well. And yes there have been plenty of times when he hasn't been well but this time he's really not well. He is not doing ok, he will survive… but…" Chopper got silent again.

The silence was killing the crew. Initially they felt some happiness and relief hearing he would survive, however the 'but' was hanging heavy in the air.

"Chopper, what do you mean with 'but'?" Brook asked carefully.

"Let me try to explain in a different way. Luffy… you gave him a 'Captain's order' not to die, am I correct?" Luffy gave an affirmative nod. "That order is the only thing keeping him alive at this moment. We are all happy that he is alive, however… as he is right now, he is in a lot of pain whether his conscious or not. As long as Zoro decides to follow your order Luffy he will pull through and recover. I can heal his physical injuries and mental ones but it will take a lot of time."

"I don't care if it takes time, as long as Zoro is alive and gets well!" Luffy said stiffly.

Chopper nodded and continued. "I know Luffy, because we all feel the same. Zoro is strong but this journey will be extremely difficult from now on and he will suffer, and what will come to happen will also all affect us too. From today onwards all of you are required to have personal meetings with me to talk out, whatever you say will of course be kept confidential of course."

"Exactly what kind of hardships are you talking about?" Sanji asked while breathing out some smoke.

Chopper sighed once more before continuing. "Zoro is at the moment sedated and have so been since i began working on him. For him to become better I have to stop giving him sedatives."

"Doesn't that mean he will wake up?" Nami asked with a hint of hope.

"Yes he will, but that is also the problem. As the sedatives wear off all his pain will rush back and hit him. Yes he's under a lot of analgesics but even that is not enough to subdue his pain. Don't forget that he is suffering both physically and mentally and I can't do anything about the mental part until I can properly have psychological sessions with him. So what I mean to say is that when he begins to wake up he will fall back in pain and then regain consciousness before falling asleep."

"Isn't that good then?" Usopp asked. "He loves to sleep."

"It isn't that type of sleep. I'm talking about a coma. After he falls asleep again I have no way to tell when he will wake up. He can wake up in a day, week, month, years, there's no way to know. Therefore I would like all of you to clean up properly, Sanji don't smoke for a while please, and come to the infirmary. When he wakes up, even if only for a short moment, it might be good if we're all there. Also use the antiseptic bottle on your hands before entering. Zoro's foot is still skinned and bare and has to remain so for me to treat it without having to amputate it due to infection, so please be careful not to hurt him more than he already is."

"I think we have a right to know what happened to our nakama." Brook said seriously.

"I will not tell you all of it but if I understood it correctly, Zoro, Luffy and Lexi were in the sea for about 24h, as I told you before Zoro shouldn't have been able to keep them above the surface much less himself. They got pulled up by that pirate ship, unfortunately that crew had some resentment towards us and especially Zoro. Both parties ended up making a deal that Luffy and Lexi were not to be hurt until Zoro could no longer protect them.

"But how did they agree to such terms?" Brook asked confused.

"The pirates told me that Zoro would kill anyone taking a step in their direction, making torturing them impossible, since they didn't want to lose any of their own. But as a result Zoro himself became vulnerable, they thought that if they could break his mind they could easily get to the other two, they didn't know they could be that wrong. After that they divided into groups and began torturing him. I'm not going to tell you everything they did, it's not necessary, just know that it's more than he could take and we all know that Zoro can take a lot whether he's sick or not. What you need to know though is that our captain, Lexi and Zoro haven't eaten or had anything to drink since they fell overboard, that makes it 5 days now." Sanji gasped as he heard that and his face paled. "Sanji, I think you know but make sure to rehydrate them." Chopper said pointing to the rescued persons. "Zoro was also forced to drink some potions, I believe that is what finally made him snap."

There was a few moments of silence before Chopper continued.

"I will be going back to the infirmary, knock when you get there."

"When should we be there?" Robin asked.

"As soon as possible. The longer I wait to remove the sedatives the harder it will be for him to wake up. Also I don't want the door to open so many times so enter all together."

With that the meeting ended and everyone ran out to clean themselves up and change into as clean as possible clothes.

 **Thank you for reading next update will be as usual during the weekend. If you can spare a few minutes please review this chapter and tell me how well/bad I managed to portrait Chopper in this chapter and chapter 11, it was harder to write than I thought ^^.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13 here we go! Enjoy ^^**

 **Chapter 13**

About an hour later the crew tiptoed into the infirmary to find Chopper looking at some charts and scribbling something on what seemed to be like a journal.

When they were all inside and the door had closed on the last person they all looked at Zoro, and the view terrified them. His previous bloody appearance was now clean. The bandages hiding his wounds were nothing new to them but the skinned foot hanging elevated in the air made most of them pale. The swordsman seemed like he had lost some muscle weight and a mask was placed over his mouth. Some kind of machine that Chopper had recently bought was connected through a cable to one of Zoro's fingers, and it would constantly and regularly give a beeping sound.

When Chopper asked if they were ready they all slightly jumped. Getting a nod from his depressed captain he administered a drug through the i.v. line in Zoro's arm. A few minutes passed where the crew stood tensed and just waited.

Then there was a slight twitch in his hands and the monitor began to beep a little bit faster. His eye opened partially, and as he felt something in his throat he started to panic, and cough uncontrollably. Chopper was quickly by his side and removed the mask from his face and the tube that was stuck down his throat to help him breath. With it gone Zoro laid limp on the bed breathing heavily and hyperventilating. It felt as if only seconds passed before his limp body went rigid and his eye rolled back and then the convulsions began. "Luffy! Franky!" Chopper shouted indicating them to help him hold the swordsman's body down. This time it felt like an eternity had passed but really only 5 minutes had gone from the time the spasms started until it ended. The entire crew was visibly pale and Franky and Lexi had both tears streaming down their face. They now looked down on the swordsman who seemed to be slowly coming to.

"Luffy! Lexi! Lexi! Luffy!" Zoro whimpered.

Chopper noticing the signs of panic and stress in the swordsman motioned for Lexi and Luffy to walk up to their injured nakama.

"We're here." Lexi cried as she took a hold of one of his hands.

"Zoro, you're a BAKA!" Luffy yelled, this outburst made the dam burst for Luffy and he was crying freely making that ugly grimace while trying to hold it in but in vain.

"Captain, you must leave me somewhere, I will only be dragging you down." Zoro said slowly as silent tears ran down his eye. Lexi…" He managed to squeeze her hand a bit harder and gave her a rare tender smile. "The rest of you, make sure to look after this two please, Luffy will become the Pirate King, he needs his strong crew." Zoro's voice became weaker at the end of the sentence.

The rest of the crew were now crying shamelessly as well. Brook had stiffened and seemed to be locked in place as his entire being radiated sadness. Robin was clutching her chest as her tears ran freely. Nami and Usopp were hugging each other and sobbing quietly. Franky was overwhelmed by emotions of having to see Zoro saying goodbye. Sanji had his fists clenched by his side as he just like Luffy tried to keep the tears from escaping but to no avail. Chopper having had to stay strong to inform the crew now cried on the floor. Lexi with tears falling stood frozen to her spot in shock. Luffy on the other hand began to cry more and screamed loudly.

"I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE WITHOUT MY SWORDSMAN! YOU'RE MY FIRST MATE! I WILL NOT BECOME THE PIRATE KING WITHOUT YOU BY MY SIDE! I WILL WAIT FOR YOU NO MATTER HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE! DO YOU HEAR ME ZORO?!"

"Aye, Captain!" Zoro gave a faint smile. He then looked at Lexi giving her a glance before looking back at his captain with a half open eye. "Captain i'm feeling sleepy." If anything this statement just made everyone cry even more and louder.

"Here, you can borrow my hat until you wake up Zoro, when you wake up I want it back. You have to give it back to me in person!" Luffy cried even more as he placed the hat on Zoro's head.

"Thank you Luffy." After uttering those words his eye slowly closed, a short moment later he whispered. "Chopper, sorry for the work I'm giving you but please help me through this."

"Trust me Zoro! I will fix this!" Hearing those words Zoro let a small breath out and his face went slack.

The strawhat crew began to bawl even more and could easily be heard at the marine ship still docked to the confiscated pirate ship.

—

While his crew were still crying Luffy wiped his tears and exited the room. Knowing that their captain was going for justice nobody on the crew neither followed nor questioned him as he left.

The marines quickly called for their captain and vice captain as they saw movement on the other deck. It was unnerving seeing Luffy walking towards them with clenched fists and an angry face with the cries still howling in the background.

Smoker blocked Luffy's way as he boarded the ship. He looked up at the older man with bloodshot and teary eyes, filled with hate.

"Roronoa?"

"They hurt him bad."

 _Hurt, not killed._ Smoker mused.

"And his condition?"

"In a coma for now, but he will be fine, he is Zoro. He has a dream to accomplish."

"And what are you doing on my ship?" Smoker had to admit that he had to praise the strawhats's belief and trust in each other.

"They must pay." Luffy replied in an ice cold tone.

"You didn't know that the reindeer has already been here exacting vengeance already?"

"Chopper did?"

"Yesterday. Also I don't think you can do much worse than what he did."

"What do you mean?"

"They cant handle more vengeance right now or they wont make it."

"Hmm… I guess Chopper did well then. I will just have a small chat with them and i will leave."

"Tashigi and I will come with and supervise."

"Fine, take me to them." Luffy's voice had a finality to it and made him sound several years older than he actually was.

Tashigi led the way to the cells with Luffy right on her heels and Smoker a few steps behind. Tashigi shivered as she glanced at the boy who looked surprisingly intimidating without his strawhat.

The moment Luffy laid eyes on the prisoners the room got cold and the air seemed to have disappeared. The two marines fell to their knees staring at the pirate in shock.

Luffy on the other hand sat down on a few boxes so he could be seen from every cell. And with a clear and strong voice he said loud enough to be heard by anyone.

"I don't like when people hurt my nakama… I hate seeing my nakama cry… I hate not being able to do anything… and I hate the ones responsible." At the end of his sentence the pressure in the room grew even more and the pirates were on the floor whimpering. Understanding that they wouldn't be able to comprehend him like this he lessened the pressure before continuing. "It seems like one of my nakama already came to pay you back, so I won't do anything additional. Chopper is a doctor so I'm confident he found the best way to hurt you. But I will give you a warning… Come anywhere close to my crew and nakama again and I will beat the shit out of you. I think we can all agree on that dead people doesn't suffer" Something in his words made the pirates lift their heads and look at him which they quickly regretted. The bloodshot, teary eyes had a steel to it and the look he gave promised pain and made chills run in the bodies of the the pirates. Luffy stood up from his seat and looked over them. Immediately that heavy pressure was back even stronger than the last time. He walked over to the two marines whom were crouching and sweating profusely.

"I'm done here." He announced before climbing the stairs. The moment he was out the pressure disappeared and the two marines could breath easily and regain their composure.

 _That was some Conqueror's Haki._ They both thought as they walked up the stairs to see the strawhat captain board his own ship.

 **Next update will be up sometime during this week.**

 **Thank you for reading ^^**


	14. Chapter 14

**Didn't think I would be able to post today but here it is so enjoy ^^**

 **Chapter 14**

Luffy carefully opened the door to the infirmary and stepped in. His eyes swept through the room before landing on his comatose first mate. He sighed deeply before saying in an authoritative voice.

"We need to have a crew meeting so everyone sit down!"

"In here? Sanji asked with a gruff voice. His eyes were still red and puffy from crying.

"For us to have a crew meeting the entire crew needs to be present." Luffy said simply, earning him approving nods.

Everyone sat down on the floor making a circle with Luffy on the edge of Zoro's bed.

"First of all we need to decide where to go now." Luffy said seriously.

"Well it depends on you Luffy, you're our captain." Nami said as she wiped a tear.

"I don't want to have adventures without Zoro being there with us!" He said firmly. "I understand if you don't want to wait and go on ahead." He addressed his crew.

There was a pregnant silence where everyone looked down on the floor. Lexi was the one to end the silence.

"Luffy, I will wait for Zoro to wake up with you. Wherever you two go I want to come with!" She said passionately.

With her words the others seemed to wake up from their daze.

"Of course i'm going to stay with Zoro! I'm his doctor!" Chopper shouted. "How can I leave with my patient still sick?!"

"He still owes me money."

"I'm going to become a brave warrior of the sea whom is able to protect his friends, so how can I leave my nakama behind?"

"On Sunny I stay!"

"I've already lost my crew once and refuse to lose it again."

"I'm staying with Luffy."

"Pfft, guess I will stay as well, or you will all starve within a week."

"Everyone…" Luffy said with pride. "It's decided then. We all have our dreams that we want to fulfill, but we will accomplish them together, side by side." Luffy gave his trademark smile, and the atmosphere lightened a bit.

"So where are we heading first, Luffy?" Robin asked.

"I wan't to find an island where we can stay until Zoro wakes up."

"There is an island not far from here, but we have a problem though." Nami said.

"Wwwha..aa..at k…kkind of p..pproble..e..ee.m?" Usopp began to stutter.

"If we're gonna stay stationed on an island, the risk is extremely high that the marines will find out and attack us, so we need a plan."

"Don't worry, I can make a SUPER camouflage for Sunny while we stay stationed."

"We should probably also take down our flag for the time being." When Robin said that everyone looked at her with horror.

"Robin!" They all yelled.

"Well, I agree with Robin." Nami said. "If we do that we will be more difficult to spot and that way Zoro will be safer." Those words shut the rest of them up, as Zoro was still heavily on their minds.

"Ano, I have practiced and improved my devil fruit abilities, I should be able to make our flag look different for anyone but us with my illusion." Lexi said.

"Alright everyone let's set sail! To mystery island!" Luffy exclaimed loudly. As everyone hurried out Nami grabbed Lexi's arm and asked her for a favor. Lexi quickly complied and went up on deck.

—-

"It looks like you're feeling quite well now." Tashigi told the emerald green haired girl sitting on the railing of the marine ship.

"Well I got to rest… anyway I have a message for you two."

Smoker raised an eyebrow and puffed out some smoke.

"As you've probably noticed our ship is preparing to set sail, and we assume you won't be following us?"

"We are not as low as that." Smoker huffed.

"Anyway, what I came to tell you is that we are taking a break from piracy and our dreams, we might as well call it vacation until our swordsman wakes up. Also we would appreciate it, if you people didn't spread these occurrences around. We just want a break until Zoro recovers."

"So where are you going?" Tashigi asked.

"Well I can't tell the marines, now can I?" She gave them a smirk, that looked suspiciously like a certain swordsman's, Tashigi noticed.

"Then for how long is Zoro going to stay in a coma?"

Lexi's face turned a bit sad as she said. "We don't know, from a day to a year or even longer. Anyhow we would never leave a nakama. Thank you for not attacking us and telling our crew how to find us." She gave them a big smile and as she faded in front of them they realized that it had only been a projection and that the actual girl were waving at them from her own ship.

"And also please burn that ship up. I feel sorry for it to have had those things occurring onboard her!" Lexi shouted before she walked away.

 **As always thanks for reading! ^^**


	15. Chapter 15

**I almost forgot that it was an update day today hehe ^^'. Anyway here's another short chapter about the time at the island where they're waiting for Zoro to wake up. Now enjoy! ^^**

 **Chapter 15**

1 month later…

"Oi, wasn't that one of Franky's warning signals?!" Usopp yelled.

"It came from Thousand Sunny! They might be under attack!" Robin said seriously.

Luffy, Lexi, Usopp and Brook had been playing a game of ping pong in the forest while Chopper, Robin and Sanji were examining and exploring the many plants and fruits of the island. For Franky to fire a warning signal it could only mean two things, 1. Zoro woke up, 2. Franky and Nami were under attack.

They ran at their highest speed until they reached Sunny. On deck they found Franky passed out with blood running out of his ears. Nami was laying in front of the open infirmary door in a heap seemingly unconscious. Chopper ran up to them and made sure they were fine before running after the others into the infirmary.

Lexi was the first one to enter the room and she and her nakama froze at the scene in front of them. Towering above their comatose swordsman, the infamous Bounty Hunter of the New World, Tobin Tate, held a sword only millimeters away from Zoro's throat. He seemed to have been surprised by the incoming strawhats. The room grew deadly silent.

"Come closer and he's dead." Tobin stated as he noticed how Luffy had been about to take a step forward. Not wanting to risk his first mate's life, Luffy stayed put.

Lexi's eyes narrowed as she was overcome with rage. As a drop of blood broke from Zoro's skin she used her devil fruit's power. The sword Tobin was holding turned into a snake and began to crawl up his hand. In sheer surprise he dropped the snake on the floor and took a step back. Taking advantage of his lack of concentration Lexi made herself look like a swarm of flies and headed straight at him. Tobin thinking that actual flies were aiming for him put his guard up but was shocked as he felt something sweep his feet and before he knew it he was on his back with a foot on his chest and a thin sword pointed to his throat. The holder of that sword was no other than a emerald haired girl with intense brown eyes that pierced right through him.

She said in low firm voice. "You made a mistake, the mistake of trying to hurt the man I love, while he lays defenseless. There is no honor in you." She finished with slowly piercing her sword through the man's throat. As she pulled her sword out the man began to gag as if he was drowning, he trashed around a bit before he turned still and the pool of blood steadily grew bigger.

Lexi blinked and took a step back, beginning to hyperventilate, she managed to whimper weakly. "What have I done?" her hands shook and she dropped her sword to the floor.

Only a minute or two had passed since they had entered the infirmary. They all looked at Lexi with wide eyes. They were taken by surprise that she had killed a man but even more surprised by the fact she had said that she loved Zoro.

Chopper getting into his doctor's role began to give orders. "Robin take Lexi to your room. Sanji go make her something to calm her down. Usopp, Luffy, carry Nami and Franky to their beds so I can take a look at them. Brook could you please get rid of that and take care of the swords." He said as he pointed to the dead man next to Zoro's bed. When everyone began to move Chopper moved quietly to Zoro's side and noted that nothing had changed regarding his condition. He took some antiseptic swabs and cleaned the shallow cut on his neck before putting a bandaid on it and controlling that the oxygen mask was still properly on. "Please wake up soon, we miss you Zoro."

Fortunately Franky and Nami didn't get hurt too badly. The bounty hunter Tobin had wanted to keep them alive to get the most out of their bounties. As a result of this attack the crew decided that they needed some kind of ward around the Sunny in case someone else would approach them with our their notice. The day passed and the strawhats resumed their leisurely days on the abandoned island.

—

1 more month later…

"Nami-swan, Robin-chwan, your drinks!" Sanji sang as he noodled his way to the ladies whom were sitting in their bikinis and tanning on the beach.

"Thank you Sanji!" They said as they happily received the refreshing drinks.

As Sanji was making heart eyes at them he failed to notice his captain flying into him and sending them both crashing into a palm tree.

"Luffy!" Sanji yelled as he regained his voice.

"Wari, wari." he replied scratching his head.

"What do you think of my SUPER throw?!" Franky shouted while making his trademark pose.

"Awesome!" Usopp, Chopper and Luffy screamed with stars in their eyes.

"Idiot! Don't throw him at me!"

"He steered himself." Franky said sheepishly.

"Tsk, whatever." He huffed and turned to the beach. "Lexi you can start to clean up now, dinner will be done in about half an hour."

"Thank you Sanji-kun! I won't be late!" She replied with a huge smile.

—-

Even if the dinner was lively it still wasn't on the same level it had once been when the entire crew had been present. Someones absence was always on the others minds.

"Lexi it seems like you were working hard on your swordsmanship earlier." Robin said with a smile.

"Hai! I can't have Zoro tell me I've been slacking off, haha!"

"That is true!"

"Still, Zoro is this ship's swordsman." Luffy said stubbornly.

"I know, I know, I'm the ship's magician." Lexi said with a sigh. She then smirked and made it look like Luffy's plate was empty.

"Lexi! What did you do to my food?!"

"Oh dear Captain, I did nothing, you ate it all."

"Liar! Give back my food!"

Lexi then made it appear as if all the food was gone on the table.

"LEEEEEXIIIII! GIVE IT BACK!"

"Haha, uups! Looks like it came back." She made the illusion disappear and then Luffy could once again see his beloved meat, he began to shuffle the food in an even higher speed while glaring at Lexi. This in turn made the entire table burst out laughing for the rest of the dinner.

 **Thank you for reading! Next chapter will be about a mugiwara adventure so look forward to it! Until then have it good ^^**


	16. Chapter 16

**I hereby present a Mugiwara adventure so please enjoy ^^**

 **Chapter 16**

1 months later…

"Oi, Chopper, Robin! Are you two ok?" Nami yelled

Somehow the doctor and the archeologist had managed to fall through the ground some 10m down. Nami and Brook looked over the edge worriedly.

"We are fine, seems like we fell into some kind of tunnel." Robin replied.

"Tunnel? Treasure! Hold on, don't go anywhere, I will go back to Sunny and get the others and we can explore together! Brook make sure they don't go without me!"

"Robin where are we?"

"It looks like these tunnels were made by humans. They certainly do not look natural."

"I hope nothing tries to kill us." Chopper said seriously which only made Robin laugh amusedly.

Only 20 minutes later the strawhats were gathered at the pit.

"Nami, did you change your panties?"

Chopper and Robin moved out of the way as Brook came flying down into the pit with a huge bruise on his skull.

Within moments a rope came down and the crew climbed down.

"I see, so Lexi stayed behind with Zoro then?" Chopper asked happily.

"Yeah, after that bounty hunter incident we figured she was capable enough to protect Zoro on her own, my beautiful mellorine!" Sanji made heart eyes with just the thought of his beautiful Lexi.

"Young love!" Franky cried with happy tears.

"Let's explore the mystery tunnel!"

And so the group ventured into the tunnel. Franky led the way illuminating the path ahead with the lights coming from his nipples.

The group continued walking until the tunnel stopped. Robin began to read the inscription and she was muttering something about treasure, poneglyphs and traps. As she was explaining to the group about her findings Luffy drew the attention from the group.

"I wonder what this do?" He said as he pulled a rope while picking his nose. As he did the floor beneath them disappeared and the crew fell and screamed and through the wordless screams a panicked scream could be heard from the sharpshooter. "LUUUUFFYYYY!"

They landed in a heap in a chamber deep below and it was all pitch black. It was damp and cold around them and Usopp began to whine for Franky to give them some light.

"Robin take a look at that, it seems to be some writing!" Nami exclaimed.

"Hmm, very interesting, the script says that there are two ways to the treasure that lies hidden in here and depending on our next step we will end with either taking the easy route or the life threateningly route. It seems to be pretty simple, as long as we don't set off any traps and by pulling the lever on the pathway we choose the pathway will open while the other will crumble."

"Yohohoho! Sounds like we're up for an easy treasure!"

The group began moving down the tunnel, they walked for a good while until there were two paths they could choose from but both of them were closed. Over the one pathway there was a drawing of gold and over the other was a drawing of a skull.

"This makes it rather easy to choose, hehe." Usopp laughed nervously.

There was a few seconds of heavy silence and then Nami yelled!

"LUFFYYY! DON'T YOU DARE!"

But too late, as Luffy dig a finger into his ear he slowly reached out for a lever on the wall with the inscription 'DEADLY PATH' with his other hand. As soon as he pulled it the path with the gold drawing began to crumble until it was completely blocked, then small stones began to fall from the ceiling, the speed and strength they fell weren't normal and the crew soon realized that the stones were covered with haki.

They ran the only way they could until they fell through another trap. On the bottom of that trap were another description.

"Is this a joke?" Sanji asked angrily. "Good job idiots you picked the deadly route, good luck…" Robin laughed amused. "Seems like whoever hid their treasure here had some humor."

"Minna look, it says something else over here." Luffy said, he then read out loud. "Walk up these stairs peacefully or press this button…" Luffy scratched his chin and to his crew's horror he simply tilted his head and said ok before pressing the button.

The stair pathway began to crumble until it was no more, and then lava began to seep up from the ground. "LUFFY, YOU IDIOT CAPTAIN!" Nami yelled in frustration.

"Yohohoho, there seems to be another staircase hidden over here!" Everyone ran towards it and as soon as they reached it the lava started to rise faster. The crew ran as fast as they could on the spiraling staircase with lava on their heels.

"Aaaaah run faster, run faster, we're gonna melt! We're gonna boil! We're gonna die!" Chopper screamed. They were all sweating as the lava increased the temperature in the narrow space. With incredible speed they were up on the next level and as soon as they reached it the lava stopped some centimeters below the last step of the staircase.

"Enough!" Usopp yelled angrily as he pointed on another inscription. 'Wow, you idiots made it…'

"Everyone start moving! The treasure is waiting for me!" Nami said enthusiastically.

"There is an exit over there!" Chopper said happily as he pointed at the other side of the room they had entered.

"Oh, look I found something on the ground it says 'DON'T STEP HERE' well ok." Luffy said and stepped on the indicating stone. His crew mates turned pale and tensed when they heard a sound from the walls. Small openings appeared in the wall and from one of them it shot out a purple thick liquid, which fell right next to them.

"Everyone don't get hit by that it's poison!" Chopper screamed. "Hurry out of this room!" As he finished his sentence the poison shot out randomly from the three walls and the crew jumped, crouched, side-stepped, cried and screamed as they made their way to the other side.

Finally they were all out of the danger zone, luckily no one had been hit. They walked tiredly through a long narrow tunnel where there were engravings of faces making grimaces, or laughing at them.

"I wished I had stayed on Sunny." Usopp whined.

"I want to go back." Chopper cried.

"The treasure better be worth it." The angry mumble echoed through the tunnel.

At last they reached the end of the tunnel and was now in a big circular room.

"Franky can you help me over here."

"Nah, Robin, did you find something?"

"The lighting is just bad over here, so I can't read the description."

At the other side of the room…

"Look there is food here!" Luffy yelled excitedly.

"Wait Luffy they can be poisoned!"

"They smell alright." Chopper added.

"Wait it's something written here it says 'IF YOU EAT THESE FRUITS YOU WILL MEET THE DEAD' whatever you do Luffy do not eat them!" Sanji turned around only to find Luffy with his cheeks bulging with the forbidden fruit.

At the same time Nami called from the other side.

"Everyone we made it. Robin found an inscription it says that all we need to do is not to touch anything in this room and walk through this exit to reach the treasure." There was a moment of silence where everyone just looked at the exit, and then a metal piece covered with haki blocked the exit.

"NOOOOOOO! MY TREASURE! LUFFY! WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

"Look the bones around the room are reassembling!" Usopp cried!

"Scary!" Chopper wailed.

"Bones!" Brook screamed.

Before their eyes, bones all over the room came together and formed nine skeletons. The crew all took down one each until one was left sitting next to the exit, swirling a key around his bony finger.

"The real challenge starts now. Only one of you will be able to get the key, only the one with the biggest fear!"

Everyone stood silent for a minute before they all turned and looked at each other.

The skeleton sighed at the fact that they didn't know who held the biggest fear among them. He then lift a bony finger and pointed at Sanji.

"You curly brow come here…"

The others burst into laughter while Sanji glared at it angrily. With angry steps he walked up to the skeleton. "Now what?"

"Now drink this." The skeleton gave him a small potion, which Sanji drank quickly.

"Is this it? Give us the key!"

"That was only to bring out the fear inside of you and now you must meet it. Whatever command it says you have to fulfill it to receive the key, of course the key will appear immediately. Now then good luck!" The skeleton laughed and then disappeared into dust.

Only moments after they could hear an ugly laughter behind them. The crew slowly turned around and while most of them had their eyes popping out of their heads Sanji almost fainted.

In front of them was a lady, no a man, no a lady…

""OKAMA!"" Everyone yelled.

"Sanji-chaaan! Come give me a kiss! You know you want it! I've been waiting for you!"

The okama began to run after Sanji and the only thing Sanji could do was run away, but since the room they were in was quite small the pair of them ended up running in circles while the rest of the crew stayed in the middle.

Luffy was laying on the floor and clutching his stomach as the laughter wouldn't stop.

"Sanji just kiss that damn thing so I can get my gold!" Nami yelled angrily.

"Hai! Nami-swa…." Sanji had stopped in his track to obey her command but the moment he turned and regret it and continued running. "I'm sorry Nami-chan! I can't I just can't!"

Nami slapped her forehead at his incompetence and sighed. "What about my gold?"

"Yohohohoho! Sanji-san sure runs fast!"

"I'm starting to feel dizzy… it's going round, round, and round." Chopper said wobbling on his feet.

"Chopper are you ok?" Usopp asked worriedly.

"Just make it stop."

"I think I have an idea." Robin said and giggled a little.

Robin summoned some extra arms, that took a hold of Sanji and made him fall face first onto the ground with a loud thud. She then made the extra limbs secure him to the floor so he could neither move his arms, legs or head.

The okama approached with its curly red hair, long eyelashes, frilly dress and don't forget those hairy legs, muscular arms, non-shaved face and double chin. It sat on top of his belly and slowly moved its face closer and then… it rapidly showered Sanji's face with wet kisses. Then the okama leaned in and gave Sanji a very loud and long kiss on the lips.

When the kiss was accomplished the okama disappeared and in its place lay a key on top of Sanji. Unfortunately Sanji was very much passed out with foam coming out of his mouth.

"My gold! It must be so close now!" Nami yelled thrilled.

Franky scratched his head as he looked at Sanji before shrugging his shoulders and picked him up.

"Ok, everyone, the door is open let's find the treasure!" Luffy exclaimed happily and ran through the tunnel, his friends were right at his heels. After having walked for quite some time they finally reached the last room, there was no exist in this oval room except for a large hole in the top where the sky could be seen. As Luffy tried to run forward his entire crew jumped him and kept him in place to prevent any more traps from setting off. Nami and Robin continued to the round shaped boat in the middle of the room. Looking back and seeing that Luffy was tightly secured they read the last message out loud.

'For whoever took the easy path… Hope you will have a good boring life. For the idiots who made it through the other route… congratulations you people are officially idiots. Now only one thing remains before you can get our hidden treasure. The treasure is in this boat, firmly sealed to it, do not try to see the treasure before you get out of here or else you will lose it all. All you have to do to receive it is take a seat in this boat, all of you of course and hold on to something. When everyone is secured press the button with a skull on the boat and you will exit. Please pay attention that the moment the button is pressed and the boat is outside this entire cave system will cave in. That was all from us, have a good day! xoxo Roger Pirates.'

"I can't believe they made us go through all of this only to make us wait seeing the treasure!" Nami complained.

"Everyone hurry up and get in the boat, make sure to hold onto something." Robin reminded them.

After a bit of shuffling and arguing they were all seated with excited and nervous looks. With great enthusiasm Luffy finally pressed the button and the moment he did, the cave began to shake and the hole above grew a bit bigger as debris fell down from it's edges. Then out of nowhere the boat shot up in the air through the hole like a rocket with incredibly speed. They all screamed, some happier than others. Usopp, Nami, Chopper and Brook cried freely as snot hanged out of their nose while Robin and Luffy just laughed through it all and Sanji (whom had just waken up) and Franky tried to just keep their cool. Everything that goes up eventually also has to come back down again and soon enough the boat began it's trip downwards, it didn't take long before the boat hit the hard surface of the sea and they all got splashed with water. It remained Franky's and Usopp duty to row them ashore, since Sanji hadn't properly recovered from his trauma. When they pulled the boat up on the sand it began to fall apart and in front of them instead of a boat laid a tremendously huge chest.

Nami ordered them to carry the ship to Sunny and when they got there she quickly managed to open the chest.

"It was worth it!" Nami cried as brilliant gold shine on them.

"Oh you're all back! That is what I call treasure! How did you get it?" Lexi asked curiously as she joined the rest.

"Lexi, I will switch with you and look after Zoro… I need to rest." Chopper said tiredly as he slowly made his way to the infirmary.

Lexi looked at him leave with a confused look on her face and only when she joined Sanji in the kitchen did she get to know exactly what they had been through to get that treasure.

 **I hope you liked my attempt at writing something like this, next chapter will be up tomorrow ^^**


	17. Chapter 17

**The reason to why I'm uploading so frequently now is that on the 25th I will be traveling for a month and I thought it best to not keep you waiting for a month without updates. Therefore you can be assured that you will have the last chapter before the 25th ^^ Now enjoy! ^^**

 **Chapter 17**

2 months later…

'Beep', 'beep', beep', 'beep'. Sanji continued looking at the monitor as it continued beeping as it had for the past four months. For four months Zoro had been unresponsive and for four months the crew had had rotating shifts to watch over him. Today it was the cook's turn to watch over his nakama.

Sanji hated having to watch over Zoro. He didn't mind spending the time at his bedside but he hated seeing him so lifeless. During his comatose state Zoro hadn't been able to eat so all his nutritions had come from the i.v. line that Chopper took care of. This had led to an enormous weight loss and the swordsman was just a fragment of what he had once been, even though Chopper had made sure to make a schedule where they moved his limbs so he wouldn't get too stiff after having removed the casts of his broken limbs.

He missed his daily fights and bickering with Zoro, and he couldn't stand watching Zoro so thin and weak. It reminded him of the days of his childhood when he had been on that damn cursed rock starving with the old geezer.

"Oi, Marimo. It's pretty damn boring here without you. We're all waiting for you, especially Lexi and Luffy. You know… to become the world's best swordsman you can't just be sleeping, it requires hard work. Shit can you even hear me marimo? We have been through a lot ever since meeting in the East Blue." Sanji continued talking about the adventures they had had, reminiscing about the past.

Sanji sighed and leaned back into his chair. He was deep in thought when the monitor suddenly began to beep a bit faster. He turned his head and watched how the lines moved faster on the monitor accompanying the beeps, his eyes quickly passed over the swordsman and he noticed how his hand slightly twitched. As a lightning bolt Sanji flew up from his chair and ran out the room to the galley where the crew was eating dinner.

As he opened the door eight heads snapped his way. It seemed as they had finished dinner a while ago and had just been passing time. They now looked at Sanji with alarmed faces.

"Minna! There was a change in the monitor and his hands twitched! I think Zoro is waking up!"

That was enough to make them all bolt into the infirmary and crowd around Zoro's bed. Just as Sanji had said the monitor was still beeping faster and occasionally his body would twitch, sweat was forming on his forehead. Chopper hurriedly took note of everything and wrote it down.

They were all caught by surprise when a moan came out of Zoro's mouth which eventually turned it whimpers, the whimpers then turned into indescribable sounds of pain meanwhile Zoro was twisting his own body as if he felt highly uncomfortable and in pain without knowing how to get rid of it.

This scene was not something the crew had expected and Chopper stood crestfallen not knowing what to do while the others were just plainly shocked. Lexi became panicked when Zoro remained in this state. She sat down on the bedside and grabbed his shoulders. She began to shake them and call out to him to stop this and wake up.

"Lexi you're hurting him!" Luffy yelled

"Let go of me Luffy! Zoro wake up, please wake up!"

At that moment Zoro's eye opened and a short shout escaped him and he flew up, sitting face to face with Lexi, whom still had her hands on his shoulders.

—

 _This darkness… for how long have I been here..? This pain refuses to leave me, it's almost as, as if it has become me… But the me is not here, my body does not seem to be here but still it feels like i'm sinking, as if the darkness is getting heavier… I'm forgetting I think, I'm sure I once had a name but I can no longer remember… Also I seem to have forgotten how I ended up in this place, maybe i've always been here, this darkness that's swallowing me… I'm all alone in this darkness, in this pain… But there is something that keeps pulling me up from the depths now and then, and when it stops I sink again… Can it be the voices..? There is a voice right now… I can feel how the denseness is becoming lighter, debt? Why does this voice mention debt..? It's hard to make out the words of the voices but this voice always speaks of debt and missing someone… Could it be me..? No! Voice don't go, don't stop speaking to me… I'm sinking again… For how long have I been here..? I have the feeling I've asked myself this before… Oh, I'm ascending again… There are three voices this time… The voices are loud but it's hard to make them out… The words seems to be lies but they make me feel happy, and another voice keeps sprouting out a lot of SUPER's… The third voice is very soothing… the tone and pitch is high and I keep making out the word "Tsugee!" which seems to be related to the lies… My memories are coming back… If I try hard maybe I can go to the voices… This soothing voice together with a pink hat… It feels right… but no, no NO! Don't go! I'm so close… so close… It feels heavy again my consciousness flutters… I feel like I've lost something… Some knowledge… I both wish and do not for the voices to come, they drag me up just to let go and let me sink… This voice today is more mature and the words are flowing as if it was reading for me… This voice used to have a knowing smile… This voice always makes me calm… I don't understand the properties of this darkness but I can feel how i'm becoming weaker, more tired… 'Yohohohoho' Ah, this voice is always the beginning of a melody… The melodies usually helps me remember better… Hearing this tune now, I can see a skeleton playing a violin and a bunch of people singing and dancing onboard a ship… But as the music dies so does the memories… It's strange really… Whenever I begin to ascend the pain intensifies and when i sink deeper into the darkness the pain becomes more dull… I have yet to understand what it means… Whenever I get close to the surface this pain makes me want to sink again, to hide… This voice however makes me warm… as it speaks I feel as if i'm being embraced… emerald flash in my mind and green big eyes… I want to escape this darkness… I want to reach this warmness… I want to reach her, yes this voice is that of a female… If I could only get higher… So close… I'm sinking again… Who was that again..? I'm sure that voice was important… Now i'm alone again with this dull pain… The darkness is crushing me… 'Zoro'… 'Zoro'… Ah this voice… There is a promise connected to this voice… This promise is keeping me from getting crushed by the darkness… I need to stay alive for this voice… I need to fight… I'm slipping… No I don't want to be here… Luffy! Get me out of here… No… my memories… so close… I was so close… But wait, close to what… In this darkness nothing is far and nothing is near… 'Marimo' This word makes me…irritated… yes irritated… Something feels different this time… This voice is growing stronger and i'm ascending faster but I can't make out any words… The pain is more intense… I see faces… They are… They are… They are my nakama… Nami, Usopp, Chopper, Franky, Robin, Brook, Lexi, Luffy, Sanji… They're all here… Why are they all bloodied..? They all look dead… Did I fail them..? Is this because of me..? Kuina… Is that you standing there..? Does this mean i'm dead..? "Zoro, you're not dead yet, but you will if you don't get out of here." Kuina I killed them… "No Zoro, they're all fine, you have promises to keep, i'm waiting for you to become the strongest swordsman, and you have people waiting for you. Live Zoro, live for the both of us." Wait don't fade away… Kuina I never got to apologize! "You have nothing to apologize for Zoro. I've helped you as much as I can, from this point on it's up to you to make it back." No don't leave me! Ah this pain is getting stronger… But I can feel something… there is a surface right there… If I could cross that surface I can get to my nakama… I need to save them, they're dying because I let them down… They're dying because i'm not there to protect them… This surface… Why can't I cross it… It feels as if it's a glass wall keeping me beneath it, the more i touch it the more it hurts… No I can't let something like pain stop me, I need to get back to them, I need to go back, a tiny wall can't stop me, I'm getting through! Aaaaaaaaaah this pain and light! Lexi?_

—-

For a short moment the room was silent and then with shaking hands Zoro brought them to Lexi's face. He felt her hair, her nose, her cheeks, and a slow stream of tears ran down his eye. With his hands still cupping her face, he turned his head, his eye landed on each of his nakama and with each person the stream of tears got bigger. The last person was Luffy and they looked at each other for a second before Luffy said his name with a smile. This small sound made Zoro break down further and his body began to shake, he turned his head forward and looked into big green. Finally understanding that they were all safe Zoro let go of himself and began to sob uncontrollably and bawled loudly as he latched himself onto the girl that held his shoulders.

"You didn't leave me to sink!" Zoro cried. "You didn't leave me." You're all not dead!"

The crew stood shocked as they saw the four months comatose swordsman bawling his eye out and clutching to Lexi as if she was his lifeline. They didn't understand why Zoro would think that they would let him sink but that could wait to later. Lexi was stroking his hair and rubbing his back murmuring comforting words. The crew having missed their swordsman snapped out of their shock and ran up to Zoro and hugged him. Brook began to play a happy, merry tune to which everyone cried and laughed. Well except for Zoro, whom was still holding on to Lexi for dear life crying his sorrow and pain out.

That night they all slept in the small infirmary. When Zoro's energy had drained from crying he had passed out on Lexi. Chopper yelled at all of them to give him some space even if he had just moments ago been doing the exact same as the rest of them.

When morning came Zoro was the last one to wake, but that was nothing abnormal to the crew. As they heard a low groan, they went to stand by his bedside as he opened his eye. The first thing that met his sight was Chopper's huge smile.

"Welcome back Zoro!"

"Oh, where am I? What happened?"

"You don't remember waking up yesterday?"

"Yesterday?" Zoro was quiet for a moment, seemingly trying to think hard, as he couldn't find his memories he shook his head.

When Sanji was about to say something Chopper turned around and silenced him with a look.

"Why is my body aching and why am I so tired?"

"Zoro, you were tortured by some pirates and you've been in a coma for four months since we found you. Are you feeling any pain?"

"Coma? My body feels different, like it's lighter but heavier. Everything is aching." He tried to sit up but was confused over how hard it was. As he lift his hand to rub his eye he caught sight of how different his arm and hand looked. "Chopper?" he asked in a slightly panicked voice.

"Since you haven't been moving for so many months your muscles have atrophied, it's nothing dangerous! And they're not lost forever!" Chopper added as he saw the panicked look on the swordsman as he saw his own arm.

Zoro took some deep breaths to calm himself down. "It's just muscles, hehe, I just need to start training again." He laughed a bit nervously, not completely fooling his nakama of how shaken he was.

"Oi, Zoro, are you hungry? You can have my meat today!" Zoro snapped his head from his arm to his captain and laughed loudly with a huge smile which confused everyone as he had seemed to be panicked.

"Captain, you're telling me you will share your food with me?" Zoro said amused.

"Only for one meal though! You can choose which one!"

"HAHAHAHAHA, Aye Captain!"

Chopper got something dark in his eyes as he heard the two of them talk. He made a small gesture to Nami and Sanji to talk to him like they normally would.

"Zoro, don't you feel guilty for not paying back the debt? Do you even know how much the interest has risen?"

Nami's words brought dread to Zoro's face and guilt was written all over his face. This also shocked the crew as Zoro had never really expressed his feeling that well, nor had he ever seemed to care about that debt except for showing annoyance.

"Marimo! A seaweed head like you can't even wake up properly. Do you even get lost in your sleep?"

The next thing that happened surprised the crew yet again, Zoro's face contorted in anger, it was not the normal anger where the two of them would shout at each other and begin to play fight. This time murderous intent was radiating from the swordsman. Before they could register he was out of his bed and had taken a chokehold on Sanji who was frozen by surprise.

"Zoro, stop, don't hurt him!" Lexi put a hand on his shoulder trying to get some contact with him as Sanji's face began to turn blue.

Zoro turned his face to hers and the enraged look he was wearing turned into one of bliss and content. He immediately dropped his hold of Sanji's throat and hugged Lexi to his chest. Time seemed to have stopped as they looked at Zoro with unbelieving eyes as Sanji coughed in the background.

"Can everyone please go out, I need to examine Zoro." Chopper said in an alarmingly serious voice.

The crew strutted out, Sanji gave a last worried glance at the swordsman before he also left to prepare breakfast.

"Hrm, Zoro, you have to let go of me."

"But I like this."

"I like it too Zoro but Chopper wants to talk to you and I have to talk to Nami." Lexi lied. As she distanced herself a bit she and Chopper noticed how Zoro came back to himself. Quickly Lexi left the room and left was Chopper and Zoro staring at each other.

"What is wrong with me?" Zoro finally asked.

"We're gonna find out. First I want you to go back to the bed. Your body is not used to be moving around. You need to take it easy."

The two of them stayed in the infirmary for most of the morning and didn't come out until Sanji called for lunch.

"How is sword-bro?" Franky asked as they waited to be served.

Chopper gave a look at Zoro and as Zoro gave an affirmative nod he began to explain.

"Zoro is well but at the same time not. Physically he's alright. All his wounds have healed nicely, but there is something wrong with his mind. I don't know if it's caused by the coma or by the torture."

"So what does that mean?" Robin asked.

"Well… First of all he can't remember why he fell into the coma, I suppose it's a defense mechanism protecting him from going insane, most likely. Secondly Zoro is not able to control himself. He is now emotionally unstable and very vulnerable so you have to watch what you're saying. Something one would normally brush aside, ignore or suppress, Zoro is unable to do. Therefore his emotions will be visible to all of us."

"Are you saying he would do things he normally wouldn't do?" Nami asked.

"Yes and no. Hmm… let me explain it this way… Let's say you remember something sad from your past while together with everyone. Normally all of us would not want to show our sadness so we would keep it to ourself and pretend everything was alright. With Zoro, if he feels sad he will cry without being able to stop it, or if he feels happy he will laugh or smile. Also if you see someone wear an ugly shirt you would normally not tell them but in Zoro's case he's unable to stop himself from saying it."

"So you could say that he's being uncontrollably impulsive?" Brook commented.

"Yes, Zoro is aware of what he's doing but his conscious won't interfere, he will only be able to reflect on it when his left alone without any of us stimulating him."

"This will certainly be interesting." Robin mused.

"So Luffy how long do you want to stay on this island?" Nami asked again.

"Until Zoro feels ready to leave! Zoro you haven't adventured on this island yet, you have to see this amazing mystery tunnel we found, it was so fun I thought we were gonna die." He said as he laughed loudly. Luffy didn't notice the dark faces in the room at the mention of the tunnel and before he knew it the entire crew except for Lexi and Zoro hit him over his head. With a bruised face Luffy apologized under the threatening eyes of Nami.

"I'm sorry, it was my fault we got trapped in the tunnel. It was my fault all the traps activated. Sorry!" This made Zoro laugh out heartily and the room was filled with laughter.

"Sanji! Why haven't you served the food yet? I'm huuuungryyy!"

"Shut up! This dish has to be served warm so I waited for you all to finish talking." Sanji set the dishes and plates in front of everyone except for Zoro.

"Oi, shit-cook! What about my food?"

"Coming Marimo! On special order from Chopper you're only to have soup for the next couple of days." As he sat the bowl down in front of the swordsman he didn't miss the look of terror on his face.

Zoro stared at the bowl before him, his eye widened and his body began to shake, his breath hitched and he was hyperventilating. He was panicking and he didn't care that the table had stopped to look at him with worried eyes.

"Zoro what's wrong?" Sanji asked worriedly, thinking he had done something wrong.

Looking at the liquid in the bowl made Zoro's head hurt and he felt as if his blood was boiling. It was strange it wasn't hurting but the memories of the pain was strong.

Sanji realizing that Zoro was focused on the soup brought his hand to the bowl to remove it from the table, but when he lifted the bowl Zoro truly panicked he hit the cook's hand and made the soup spill all over the table as he yelled. "Get that thing away from me!" The moment the liquid was gone Zoro slumped in his chair and cold sweat were running down his face.

"It almost looks like he's scared." Usopp whispered.

"Oi, Zoro? Are you scared of the soup?" Luffy asked, genuinely concerned. It sounded really stupid, scared of soup the others thought. But their eyes widened when Zoro nodded.

Suddenly Chopper yelled. "I know why Zoro is scared of it!"

The others looked at him confused. "When Zoro was being tortured he was forced to drink something that made him feel a lot of pain. It was that, which eventually made him lose his mind back then."

"I'm sorry, I ruined your lunch." He now wore the face of shame.

"Sanji fill a new bowl to Zoro." Sanji did as he was told without a moments hesitation. When Zoro saw the bowl again he began to panic but before he could throw it away Luffy snatch it and brought it to his lips.

"Luffy NO!" Zoro screamed.

"Zoro, trust me. Sanji made this and he would never hurt us with his food. We are nakama." He said with a smile and drank half of the soup. "See, i'm ok, here the rest is for you." He said as he stretched the bowl to his shaken first mate.

Zoro looked from the bowl to his captain to the cook and then back to the bowl again. He strengthened his resolve as he saw the familiar look on his family's faces. With shaking hands he lifted the bowl and slowly drank the content. As he set the bowl back down his entire body shook.

"Oi, Marimo, my food not good enough for you?" Sanji asked while puffing on his cigarette.

This immediately switched Zoro's mood to anger and the both of them began to fight. Sanji led their fight out on deck so the others could enjoy their meal. While exchanging blows Sanji smirked, he was secretly happy to be able to let off steam this way again.

Zoro quickly tired, which Sanji noticed and hence they both stopped. Sanji watched as the swordsman went to the railing and gazed out over the horizon.

Sanji observed him for a while, he then realized that Zoro must have traveled far in his mind to even forget his presence. He gave him another worried look before going back to the kitchen.

 **I hope you liked this chapter! Yay finally Zoro woke up! I hope I managed to make this chapter well, hit the review button and let me know what you think ^^ Thank you for reading!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Thank you to all of you who is still reading this story. In about one week this story will have come to an end so I hope you will stay with me until the end! Enjoy ^^**

 **Chapter 18**

The next couple of weeks were emotionally hard on Zoro. Surprisingly his physics returned rather quickly. In only three weeks he had returned to his former self. Lifting weights as if they were nothing. What had starting to wear him down was the inability to control his own actions. For a swordsman the skill of self-control was of essence and now he lacked it. Chopper had advised him to do some meditation and luckily it worked but very slowly. He could feel that he had more control than during that first week of his awakening but it was still far from how it had once been.

The crew didn't mind Zoro's lack of self control, rather it was a nice change to see him smile and laugh so openly. Never had Zoro fought so much with Sanji, or laughed so much at the younger ones or wore a sad or embarrassed look when someone said something hurtful to him.

When Robin went into the kitchen one evening to make herself some coffee she was surprised to see Zoro sitting slouched over the table drinking some sake. Just Zoro drinking was not enough to startle Robin however a drunk Zoro was, never could Robin remember a time where the swordsman had been drunk.

While making herself coffee she glanced over at the swordsman whom took a swing of his bottle. The rest of the crew thought that he was in the gym training, never would they have suspected that he would be here drinking. Thinking that she would never experience a drunk Zoro again she decided to take the seat opposite him so she could study him while figuring out what was bothering him.

"Ano, Zoro? Why are you drinking here alone?"

"Robin it's just you?" He said after having jerked his head up and noticing her. "A swordsman without control is no swordsman. I am me but i'm not myself." He said with a defeated voice and face.

"Hasn't the meditation helped?"

"It's not working fast enough, if we were to sail out now I would be a danger to the entire crew 'hiccup'. I'm still too weak." Robin blinked as he did another hiccup.

"Nobody on this crew would ever think that you were weak Zoro."

"I'm weak Robin! Can't you understand? I'm failing her, I'm failing Kuina, and i'm breaking my promise! Why won't you all just leave me and go?" He looked at her with a begging eye.

"Zoro we would never leave you. I don't know who this Kuina is but if you don't want to fail her you shouldn't give up. And regarding that promise may it be a year or 20 from now, as long as you strive to uphold it, if she is as dear to you as it sounds she wouldn't mind the wait."

"But it's my fault she's dead, I killed her, I broke her dream!" And with that he took a swing of his bottle and began to sob his soul out on the table.

Being the intelligent woman she was Robin understood that no words would comfort him now, what he needed was affection. She got up from her seat and rapidly walked to his side, she sat down on the seat next to his and put an arm around his shoulders and began rubbing his arm.

"Dammit and I can't even drink anymore."

"It's ok Zoro, let it all out." Robin encouraged him.

"Robin, I'm just so tired." He finished the last of his bottle and continued crying.

As Sanji and Nami entered the kitchen they froze at the scene ahead of them. Seconds after Luffy ran in screaming. "Sanji where is my food!" Only to stop and watch his first mate and archeologist with an expressionless face.

Zoro's head was resting on Robin's arm and he was trying to cover his own face with his own arms meanwhile crying loudly. Robin's other hand was caressing his head and neck gently.

"Captain, would you please mind waiting for dinner for a bit? Maybe it's better if you all go outside. I will let you know when you can come in."

Without a word Luffy grabbed Nami's and Sanji's backs (both of them still frozen from shock) and dragged them out before closing the door. He sat himself in front of the galley and looked down at his own hands seemingly lost in thoughts.

"Luffy-bro, you didn't get any snacks?"

Luffy looked up at his crew. "Zoro is not feeling well and needs to calm down a bit. Robin is helping him." He returned to stare at his hands.

"Luffy what's wrong? You don't look so well either." Chopper asked worriedly.

Luffy did seem a bit paler than normally and his hands shook slightly.

"Luffy, talk to us." Usopp pressed.

"Isn't this all my fault that Zoro's like this?" This time when Luffy raised his head he had tears running down his face and he looked completely guilty.

"Nani? Why would you say that?" Nami asked confused.

"He broke when trying to protect me…"

"Then am I not equally guilty then?" Lexi interrupted him.

"No, you're not, I was the one who gave that order."

"An order that saved his life. Thanks to you Luffy he can continue reaching for his dream." Lexi stared at him angrily.

"Both of you calm down." Brook said. "It's neither of your's fault, if there's anyone to blame it's those pirates that caught you three."

"He's right Luffy, and you shouldn't underestimate the Marimo, he wouldn't break for something like that. Sure he's a bit out of balance but time will fix that." Sanji lit a cigarette and stared up at the sky while taking a drag.

"So it's not my fault?"

"No Luffy it's not." Nami said tiredly.

"Really! Haha! Yosh! Let's wait for Zoro and Robin and then we can eat!" Luffy burst out laughing.

"I swear he's not normal." Usopp said to Chopper.

"I will never get used to this." Chopper admitted.

Not long after an arm sprouted out of Sanji's back and tapped his shoulder.

"Minna, I think it's safe to go in now." Sanji declared.

Curiously the crew went into the galley and watched dumbstruck at Robin whom looked at Zoro with a bewildered face. If the situation wasn't so serious they would all have burst out laughing at her expression. Zoro on the other hand had his chin resting on the table and hiccuping while murmuring incomprehensible words. His stare was somewhat glazed and it almost looked like he was arguing with himself.

"Robin-san? Sanji asked carefully.

Robin jumped a bit and asked absentmindedly. "Sanji could you please check how much alcohol is missing? I'm actually a bit worried."

"I can't believe Zoro is actually drunk." Usopp was holding his mouth not to let the laughter escape. He regretted it though as he received an elbow to his ribs by an enraged Lexi.

"It's not funny Usopp!"

"Wari."

"It can't be right?"

"What's wrong Sanji?" Nami asked.

"It can't be only one bottle missing…"

"Hold on are you telling me sword-bro got drunk out of one bottle?" Franky burst out laughing loudly.

"Hey, why are you all making fun of him for? Being drunk is nothing uncommon!"

"Wari Lexi! But this is an uncommon sight!"

"Men…" Nami shook her head.

"Yohohoho, an uncommon sight indeed."

"What do you all mean?"

"Oi, Lexi… You joined this crew rather late you never got to experience the akuma that is Roronoa Zoro in a drinking contest. This guy used to drink out bars dry without so much as a wobble in his gait but now… shihihihihi… but of course I the fantastic Captaiiiin Usopp were the only one who could best him at his game."

"That last part was definitely a lie." Lexi sighed.

"Sanji what was in the bottle he drank?" Robin continued pressing.

"It's just sake Robin why?"

"He told me things that were very private and that shouldn't have been spilled under an occurrence like this. I didn't want to believe that it was just some sake that caused this. If this is to happen again with anyone else of you I want you to leave him alone and get me instead. I shouldn't have heard what I did but there's no changing that now. Words like that are not meant to be heard in conditions like this. When he's ready he will tell us on his own accord and without being influenced by anything."

"We understand Robin." Luffy said seriously.

"Then maybe someone can help him to his bed?"

"Let me handle sword-bro."

Franky walked up to Zoro and clapped his shoulder. "Zoro what do you say about taking a stroll with me?"

"A sssstroll…'hiccup' ssssounds good 'hiccup'."

"Alright then bro!" Franky helped Zoro up from his seat and supported him by holding his shoulder. Zoro swayed dangerously and his eye was unfocused.

"Franky-bro is that you? 'hiccup'"

"Yes bro!"

"We never told you… hihihihi… back in east blue we met this stupid marine captain Luffy and I. His idiotic son almost had me executed back then…hahahaha… good old memories… anyway his name was Axe-Hand Morgan. Can you believe his hand was actually an axe and it looked so stupid… gahahaha… 'hiccup' you would have laughed so much bro! His attempt of looking like 'hiccup' a cyborg would have looked like child's play next to you!"

"Hahaha! Thank you bro! A real compliment you're giving me."

"NANI! Zoro almost got executed?" Everyone stared at Luffy with wide eyes.

"Hai…" Luffy said while picking his nose.

"NANI?"

"Zoro was a bounty hunter back then. He made a deal with Helmeppo, instead of Helmeppo punishing a little girl and her mom Zoro had to stay chained to a pole at the marine's base and go without food for a month. When he had one week left Coby and I found out that Helmeppo had been lying and that he would execute Zoro the next day. Everyone kept saying that Zoro was a demon but I found out he's actually a real softy shihihihihi."

They all looked at Zoro with unbelieving eyes as he staggered out of the room, singing some song together with Franky.

With Zoro gone, they all sat down to converse while Sanji prepared a simple dinner. It didn't take long before Franky also joined them.

"Yo, the moment he laid down he passed out."

"Zoro is actually feeling stressed and rather exhausted from his unbalanced control of emotions." Robin said.

"Who could have thought our swordsman was so emotional, yohohoho."

"Robin a few days ago something strange happened, maybe you know what it was all about." Nami said thoughtfully.

— FLASHBACK —

It was a rather warm and nice day. Lexi and Nami had been sun bathing on Sunny's upper deck while they boys had been playing water war with water pistols all around the ship. Brook was laughing his trademark laugh while playing a dramatic song for the lively boys. Robin and Franky were walking around somewhere on the islands and Zoro were momentarily crossing the deck. Nami took all of this in as she began to walk down the stairs to lower deck. But she missed to notice the small pool of water on one of the steps and when she stepped on it she slipped falling backwards with a yelp.

Luckily for her Zoro reacted quickly and before she could hit her body to the wooden steps Zoro caught her and held her tightly to his chest.

"Erhm… Zoro… you can let go now." She noticed how hard he was breathing, and the slight tremble in his body.

He pushed her roughly away from himself and she was surprised to see that the look on his face were a look of rage, furious rage. She was shocked when she realized that her cheek stung. Slowly she lifted her hand to her cheek to notice it was starting to swell a bit, it was then that she realized that Zoro had slapped her, and also that he was now yelling at her.

"…fall like that! What if I hadn't been near?! Why can't you be a bit more careful?! It's not hard for people to die like that!"

Slowly tears were forming in her eyes. Her cheek didn't particularly hurt but it stung and most of all she was shocked, after all this time sailing together, Zoro had never raised a hand at her.

"Nami! Are you ok…Zoro what is wrong with you?!" Lexi yelled.

Now Zoro looked less enraged and more upset. All the yelling had drawn Sanji to them.

"Marimo what the hell do you think you're doing?"

Zoro held his head in frustration and pain. "Just let me be!" he pushed the cook out of the way and ran off the ship. Neither of the three missed the upset face he wore as he ran away.

Chopper had found something to cool her cheek with and had asked what had happened. With Nami's request neither Lexi nor Sanji said a word. Nami had been worried for the swordsman whom had been gone for hours and when he finally came back and Luffy asked where he had been, all he said was that he had been out for a walk.

— END OF FLASHBACK —

Robin sighed and looked at Nami seriously. "That incident has something to do with his past and him hitting you was probably from the rage and worry he felt. We all know that he can't contain himself."

"It was just so unexpected…"

—

The next morning…

Sanji scratched his chin. He had just woken up and was about to get out of bed to prepare breakfast when he heard someone groan. _What was that?_ He listened harder and he heard it again. _It almost sounds like it's coming from the Marimo. Holy crap it is!_ He crawled out of bed and made his way silently to the sound. When he reached Zoro he looked down on the man and furrowed his forehead. The sound was indeed coming from Zoro and the man was curled up on himself and holding his stomach.

"Oi, Zoro… you alright?" The only response he got was another groan. Sanji shook him lightly and gasped as Zoro opened a blood shot eye at him. He slowly sat up but as he did his face paled. Sanji recognizing the signs, hurried and got a bucket just in time for Zoro to vomit in it.

"Damn what is wrong with you?" Sanji said.

"Why is everything spinning?" Zoro asked weakly.

"Hey Zoro what's wrong?" Luffy asked, as a reply Zoro threw up some more.

"It's nothing he is just hungover." Chopper said from his bed as he tiredly faced them. "I warned him about drinking alcohol in his state."

"Oi, Chopper aren't you a bit cold?" Usopp asked.

"He chose not to listen…" Chopper said grumpily.

After spending some moments listening to Zoro barf and heave they decided to start an early day and left the bedroom. It was still early morning when Nami kicked hers and Robin's bedroom door open and shouted.

"LUFFY! WHY ARE YOU GUYS SO LOUD?! IT'S SO EARLY WHY ARE YOU NOT SLEEPING AND LETTING US SLEEP?!"

"Ah, we wanted to start an early day." Luffy said with a smile.

"And why's that?" Robin came out as well and stood next to Nami with arms crossed.

"Zoro's hungover and throwing up, we thought it would be more pleasant outside." Brook said and laughed.

"Zoro's sick?" Lexi had also emerged from their room but unlike Nami and Robin she was still not dressed. Her hair was messy and part of her too big t-shirt was tucked in her shorts on her right side. Her shorts were way to short and loose enough to be comfortable to sleep with.

"Yohohoho Lexi! Can I see your panties?" Lexi's face turned red and she punched Brook to the other side of the ship.

"Nice one there! Your punch has gotten better."

"Thank you Nami, but I've still got ways to go until I get on your level."

The crew finally got their breakfast and now changed Lexi decided to go see how her target of affection was fairing.

The boys' room was dark so she left the door open so that some fresh air and light would come in. She walked straight up to Zoro and before doing anything else she took the almost full bucket and replaced it with a new one before going out again and cleaning the dirty one. She came back to Zoro's side and put a hand to his cheek.

He opened a startled eye but Lexi kept her hand where it was and continued stroking his cheek. Zoro finally relaxed and sighed.

"How are you feeling?"

"This headache is unreal. What happened i'm not in the infirmary but I feel like shit and Chopper is mad at me?"

"Oh, so you don't remember anything from yesterday."

"Yesterday… hmm… not really, everything is just a white blur."

"Erhm… well Chopper is kind of mad at you. You ignored what he had said and went and got drunk last evening. Franky got you back to your bed."

"Drunk..? No that can't be, I don't get drunk."

"Haha Zoro, apparently being in the state you are makes you more vulnerable to chemicals, including alcohol. You were very much drunk yesterday and you're having a hangover now."

"Hangover?"

"Yes hangover."

"Never had one before."

"So i've heard…"

They sat in comfortable silence. Zoro had his eyes closed as the headache was tearing on him and Lexi played softly with his hair, slightly relieving his pain. Maybe an hour passed with them enjoying each others presence, Zoro felt how Lexi removed her hand and as he opened his eye to look at what she was doing he felt her lips on his cheek.

"Feel better Zoro." Before he could respond she had left the room and left Zoro to his thoughts.

 **As always thanks for reading!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Enjoy ^^**

 **Chapter 19**

A few more days passed and the crew noticed the hungry look Zoro kept on Lexi. Except for Lexi everyone noticed, yes even Luffy.

"Oi, Zoro, why are you looking at Lexi."

"I'm not looking at her."

"Yes you are."

"No, i'm not."

"Yes you are."

"No, i'm not."

"Yes you are."

"Gah! Luffy leave me alone!"

"Yada!"

—

"So what do you think? Have I become better?" Lexi panted.

"Oh better you've become but you still have a far way to go." Zoro smirked.

"Oi, marimo if you're not careful with her no dinner for you!"

"Shut up love-cook!"

"Don't think you can pay attention elsewhere!" Lexi shouted as she attacked Zoro with the wooden katana.

Zoro easily blocked her attack. "Didn't I just tell you, you have a far way to go?" They exchanged a few more blows which had Lexi panting heavily. Lexi next attacked with a high swing, Zoro moved, closed into her space and stopped her swing by grabbing her wrist, she tried to punch with her other hand but Zoro pulled her tightly to himself making her unable to move. She hissed in anger and tried to change her grip of the wooden sword, Zoro tightened his hold of her wrist and the katana fell to the deck.

"You need to do better than that to beat me…" Zoro began to say but his voice got stuck in his throat as he looked down at her. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes stared into his. Her mouth was partly open and she was still panting. Zoro felt something swell in his chest and felt the part around his bellybutton tighten, his blood felt hot and that hungry feeling resumed. Without being able to stop himself he leaned in and brought his head closer to her at the same time as he was slowly moving his hand from her wrist to her hip. His other hand had traveled up her back and was resting on her neck.

Firmly he put his lips to hers and kissed her. It started as a slow kiss but this was what Lexi had been wanting for a long, long time, she parted her lips some more and moaned which made Zoro's last bit of self control jump into the sea. His tongue entered her mouth hungrily and the first innocent kiss now turned passionate and wild. Zoro kissed her with all his might and when Lexi's legs began to go weak he lifted her and placed her on the railing. Lexi's arms were around his neck and Zoro's body were between her legs. They had both completely forgot their audience and when Zoro tried to unbutton her shirt. Robin decided to intervene.

"WHAT ARE THEY DOING!?" Franky, Brook, Usopp and Sanji shrieked. Chopper was covering his eyes while giggling and Nami looked victorious. Luffy stood and watched the scene and scratching his head.

"Na… Are Zoro and Lexi gonna make a baby now?" His comment made Sanji faint, and Nami's eyes to tear on the thought of cute babies and while Brook shouted 'PANTIES', Franky cried murmuring 'Young Love'. Robin just chuckled and responded her captain.

"No Luffy not yet and not here I hope. I will tell them to continue later somewhere more private." She walked up to the kissing couple where Lexi now had half her shirt open and Zoro stood shirtless. She stood close to the swordsman and then said in a clear voice.

"Zoro, are you really fine with showing Lexi up like this in front of the other men?" Robin took a half step back to watch. Zoro continued kissing Lexi ferociously but after a moment or two he began to slow and as if something had snapped he broke the kiss and took a step back. He eyed her hungrily, her soft skin her shiny hair, perfectly aroused face, her collarbones her … his head snapped to where the rest of the crew was standing and he had a murderous glint to his eye.

"So are you taking her somewhere else to continue, or do you rather continue here?" Robin asked with a knowing smile.

Zoro's mind seemed to come back and instead of replying evident fear was on his face as he looked from Robin to Lexi (whom was still dazed). "What have I done..? Lexi I'm so sorry!" He stumbled backwards and then ran the fastest he could to the mens' quarters.

"Hmm… I didn't expect that to happen." Robin said to herself. She let go of the extra arms keeping Lexi from falling down the railings and helped her down. Lexi turned towards her with eyes big as saucers.

"Robin… He kissed me! He really kissed me! Am I dreaming?"

"Haha, oh our proud swordsman did indeed kiss you Lexi. However I think he managed to get into his head that he has done something wrong to you. He went and hide…"

"He kissed me… I've never felt like this Robin… I even forgot where we were…"

"Haha yes we noticed, but now Nami and I would want to have a little girl-talk with you, you know among us women so let's go to our room."

"A talk… Can we talk about Zoro? He is so mmm."

"Oh trust me he's gonna be the hot topic of our conversation."

Nami and Robin dragged her into the room and they stayed there until dinnertime. Meanwhile the boys heard giggling and laughter but also shouts coming from the room and they had no idea of what was going on.

When dinner came Chopper had forced Zoro to come out and join them. The males were all seated waiting for the girls to arrive so that they could be served. They were equally shocked when the girls entered the room with flushed embarrassed faces. They took their seats and Lexi just happened to sit next to Zoro. They looked at each other and instantly turned red. Lexi looked at Nami and Robin whom both got beet red in the face but gave affirmative nods to Lexi's raised eyebrow.

This did not go unnoticed by the rest and Luffy burst out angrily!

"Hey you three! You can't keep secrets from you captain! What are you hiding?"

"I'm sorry Luffy, it's girl stuff." Nami said smugly.

"But Zoro is not a girl and he's also turning red!" Which made Zoro turn even more red…

Robin chuckled heartily. "Dear captain, just trust in us."

"Buuuuuuuut! I wan't to know!"

"Suck it up Luffy, we said you can't!" Nami had gotten enough and gave Luffy a big pretty bruise on his head. "Sanji-kuun we're ready to eat now."

"Hai! Nami-swan!"

Zoro and Lexi ate in silence while the rest of the crew was as lively as always. The only real difference now was that whenever Luffy tried to steal food from Lexi, Zoro was there to stop him. Luffy quickly noticed and thought it fun to see Zoro struggle with eating and defending his own and her plate, which made him decide to only try to steal from Usopp's Zoro's and Lexi's plate.

When everyone was filled and satisfied Lexi tugged on Zoro's sleeve. He looked down at her and as their eyes met they both flushed again.

"Eh Zoro, could I speak with you for a moment?"

"Sure." They both looked at each other without moving.

"Hrm… I mean in private?"

"Ah… eh…okay."

"Nobody will disturb you in the Crow's nest." Robin said with a smirk.

"Will they be alright?" Franky said worriedly after the two of them had left.

"Zoro has returned to the way he was before with the exception of emotions being much more easily visible on his face, and of course he will remain sensitive to substances for a while more. Whatever he does or say is entirely him saying and not a spurt of the moment." Chopper said happily. "I think Zoro loves Lexi very much don't you think?"

"Yes you're right Chopper, and the same goes for Lexi." Nami said with a big smile.

"Anyway we shouldn't disturb them until they come out of the crow's nest." Robin said.

"Nande?! I want to play with Zoro."

"Luffy… Zoro wouldn't be very happy." Nami said tiredly.

"Ah! So Zoro is going to make a baby after all! Rayleigh told me that when making a baby the ones involved would want privacy. Shihihihi! New nakama!" Hearing this, Sanji sank to the floor like a burst bubble. He couldn't believe his pretty, beautiful Lexi-swan would end up falling for the seaweed-head.

 **Hope you enjoyed ^^. Next update tomorrow!**


	20. Chapter 20

**There will be some adult stuff in this chapter so to sensitive readers you can just read until the warning shows up in bold and then scroll to where the next bold is, which should say that there wont be any lemon. Hope everyone will enjoy ^^**

 **Chapter 20**

 **LEMON WARNING IN THIS CHAPTER**

Zoro and Lexi made their way up to the Crow's Nest and when they got inside they sat down on the floor and faced each others. They sat like that for a while in silence both thinking of what to say until Zoro cleared his throat and began.

"Lexi I'm really sorry for before."

"If you're sorry, then why did you kiss me?"

"I…I…I don't know."

"Be honest!"

"It was wrong of me to force myself onto you like that."

"Why did you kiss me?"

"Because I've wanted to, for a while!" Zoro shouted.

"Really..?"

"Sorry."

"You don't need to be sorry…"

"Hn?"

"I've been wanting you to kiss me for a while as well."

"Eh..!"

"To be honest I've been having feelings for you for a long time now."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that I have liked you for quite some time now and you have never realized, so my question is what do you feel about me!?"

"I…I don't know."

"I'm sure you know…"

"…"

"Please be honest with me Zoro. Whether you turn me down or not please tell me." Zoro looked at her begging eyes and decided to throw his pride and be truthful.

"I think I've liked you too for a while now. I don't know when it started though."

"Do you mean that Zoro?"

"Yes."

"Then what do you want to do?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do…do you want to enter into a relationship with me or do you just want to fool around?" Both turned equally red at the question.

"Nani..!"

"I mean I like you and all probably love you actually but…but I don't want to be used even if it's you, so…"

"Lexi!" Zoro interrupted. "I would never use you or just fool around with you. You are nakama and I care about you more than that. Maybe we could try that relationship thing…"

"Do you really want to?"

"Yes, it wouldn't hurt to give it a try."

"Then we are a thing now."

"I guess so."

"You know what Zoro?"

"What?"

"Earlier you really caught me by surprise with that kiss, I wasn't really able to do anything."

"Hehe!"

"Huh, you're laughing?"

"I'm that good of a kisser huh?"

"Well then I think it's my turn to kiss you now."

"Huh? What are you doing?" Zoro leaned back as Lexi crawled the short distance between them and put her hands on his shoulders. She gently but firmly pushed him on the floor and straddled him.

Zoro's body tensed in anticipation. Lexi leaned forward and let her lips touched his. Without wasting time she moved her lips over his and when he moaned she let her tongue explore his mouth. The kiss was wild and passionate and when they broke for air, their faces shined with lust.

"You're not a bad kisser yourself." Zoro said huskily.

"Then do you want some more?" Without answering Zoro pulled her down and they continued kissing. As they both became more aroused Lexi began to squirm above Zoro, teasing his hard member. Zoro on the other hand had his hands roaming over her. He peeled off her shirt with her barely noticing and caressed her back, he then began sitting up and he kissed her deeper as he massaged her breasts. Lexi broke the kiss and whispered in his ear.

"Take it off…"

Zoro quickly complied and had his shirt off in seconds. They paused and admired each other. Zoro looked at Lexi's body and noticed small old scars across her body. They were of the nature that if one didn't look closely one would miss it. He caressed those scars gently and kissed one scar on her shoulder before giving each other some space again.

Lexi once again marveled at his beautiful body, it was hard comprehending just how lean and strong Zoro actually was. She held his head in her hands and let her thumb pass over his scar, not for the first time wondering how he got it. Zoro surprisingly turned his head and kissed Lexi in her hand. The kiss tickled and made her giggle which in turn made Zoro smile a warm smile at her. She continued her inspection of his body, she traced the scar on his chest made by Mihawk. Her cold fingers on his hot body made Zoro feel as if his skin burned, a pleasurable burn and a shiver passed through his body and a low groan escaped his lips.

"Zoro…" Lexi whispered. She stared into his eye nervously.

"Hmm..?"

"I've never done this before…"

Zoro's body stiffened a bit at the notion of him being her first. With great self control he answered her.

"We don't need to, if you don't want to. We can wait, there's no need to rush, I will love you either way. Let's do it in your own pace."

Lexi's heart warmed at his words. People around the world simply didn't know that this dangerous man actually was a very caring one. She gave a quick kiss to his lips and said.

"No, i'm ready, I want you Roronoa Zoro."

Her words made something happened inside of Zoro. Maybe it was her saying his name or the implication that she wanted him to take her, to be her first, he didn't know but his body began to be increasingly hot and his hard member throbbed in his pants. He was having a harder and harder time to control himself and his body ached to be inside of hers.

 **WARNING LEMON BEGINS GO TO NEXT 'BOLD' FOR NO LEMON!**

"Can I see it?" She asked nervously.

She didn't need to ask twice. He lifted her up with him as he stood up and removed the remaining of his clothes, he then proceed to sit on the floor and lean his back to the bench with his hands behind his head. He wore a confident smile as he saw her inspect his lower part.

"Like what you see?"

When he didn't receive an answer Zoro became a bit nervous and then surprised when she slowly walked up to him and sat down between his legs. Her small hand touched his member gently and she smiled when she saw the shiver run through him. She testily held it firmer and stroke her hand up and down when she heard him moan she became more confident and did her motions more firmly. When his breathing had increased and he was panting heavily while moaning she suddenly stopped. Zoro snapped his eye opened and looked down on her only to throw his head backwards in bliss.

"Oh Lexi!" Lexi had now taken him into her mouth and changed between kissing, licking and sucking him. It was literally driving him crazy, Lexi had complete control over him as she pleased his body.

Zoro began to shake and his breathing became uncontrolled until he sat up and pulled Lexi up from his legs and held her tightly to his chest.

"I almost came there…"

"Isn't that good?"

"Mmm…but I want to please you too, take off your clothes." Lexi obediently did as he said and stood awkwardly in front of him.

Zoro sat up straighter and eyed her from head to toe.

"You look beautiful. Come here." He took her hands and made her straddle him again. "When you're ready just ease yourself onto me." Lexi blushed hard as she looked at his calm face.

"But Zoro…"

"Hmm..?"

"Y…you're quite big and thick will it work?"

"Don't worry it will be fine, I promise. Just take it slowly." To calm her down he cupped her face and kissed her gently. This time the kiss was neither wild nor passionate, it was more slow and deep. Zoro brought his hand to her opening and teased her with his finger. He was pleased to notice that she was wet, very wet. With the wetness she had provided he coated himself to make the penetration easier for her. He let his tip rest at her entrance and instead focused on kissing her. He could feel how he throbbed at her warm entrance and he had to force himself not to take her immediately. He wanted this moment to be a good one for her and therefore he had to retain himself.

When Lexi slowly eased herself onto him, he moaned pleased.

"Are you ok?"

"It hurts a bit." She said honestly.

"Trust me, it will pass as soon as you get used to my size." Lexi now had half of him inside and Zoro was sweating with the strain of keeping himself still. She closed her eyes and then lowered herself fully onto him. As something snapped inside of her she gave a short yell and her body tensed up.

"Lexi are you ok?"

"It hurts."

"Do you want to stop?"

"No…"

Zoro began to kiss her again and when she started to respond he broke the kiss and instead went to her neck and behind ear. This soon made Lexi relaxed again and made her body move in response to what Zoro was doing. Pleased with himself Zoro repositioned themselves on the floor so that he was now laying flat on his back with Lexi sitting on top of him. He positioned his hands on her hips and began to lead her into moving her body on top of his. Lexi understood what he wanted and followed his lead, in mere moments she was the one moving and Zoro only held her hips for support as his head was bent backwards in bliss. Lexi's hands rested on his pecs and she lost herself in sensation. Never had she felt this good, she began to move faster and thrust deeper which made Zoro groan. As she felt something building up inside her she began to moan loader. Her thrusts became more desperate and her breathing uncontrolled. Zoro noticed and held her more firmly, she then began to shake uncontrollable, she yelled out his name several time as she lost control of herself. Zoro began to thrust as well, dragging out her orgasm until she fell on top of him, completely sated and spent and she breathed hard into his chest.

Zoro let out a rumbling laugh as he hugged her tightly. Lexi sighed content as his chest vibrated below her.

"Oi, you don't think we done yet, do you?"

"We're not?" She looked up at him with wide eyes.

Zoro chuckled again and with a swift motion he switched their positions so that Lexi laid sprawled beneath him. He held her in place as he began to thrust inside her. Now when he had the control he could go on in a much faster speed and harder thrusts. Lexi dug her nails in his back as she was once again losing herself in the act. They were both sweating profusely and moaning each others name between their panting breaths. Zoro felt he could no longer hold back, with a few more well placed thrusts he had Lexi orgasming around him, convulsing and pulsating tightly around him, which made him finally come. He gasped and collapsed on top of her, and he held her tightly as his body convulsed and shot his seeds inside of her.

Lexi felt something fill her up, something coming from Zoro. She knew what it meant but she didn't care as she would gladly live through the consequences. When her orgasm passed she noticed how Zoro still held her tightly and that his whole body trembled. Lexi embraced him gently and smiled thinking how lucky she was to have met Zoro.

When Zoro finally stopped trembling, he raised himself so that his weight rested on his arms instead of Lexi. He wore a confused expression and looked at her with affection.

"Lexi, I swear. I've never felt like this before."

"Thank you Zoro, it makes me really happy."

"No, you don't understand, I really mean it, I love you Lexi."

"Zoro." She said full of love.

They stayed like that for awhile, hugging each other and sharing slow kisses. It didn't take long before sleep took them both.

It was dark outside when Lexi woke up. She could feel strong arms holding her tightly and Zoro's warm breath on her neck. Even though he was asleep she could feel something poke her in the back, she flushed red just thinking about it and the more she thought about it the more horny she got and began to squirm leading to the man behind her to wake up.

Zoro gave a moan and held her tightly. "Lexi, you're awake?"

"Mm, Zoro, I want you!"

This made Zoro open his eye fully and take a proper look at her excited face. A shiver went through him and he quickly positioned himself above her and slowly eased himself in. They both breathed out in relief. Zoro moved slowly while kissing Lexi on her neck. As she began to beg for more he angled himself and started to thrust faster. Even though he made her orgasm he was finding it hard to get his own release her contractions teasing him. He removed himself from her and said in a dark husky voice. "On your stomach, now!" She timidly obeyed and the moment she had flipped herself over not really knowing what to expect, Zoro pulled her hips upwards and then slammed himself into her. Lexi now supported herself with her hands against the floor and her knees and moaned uncontrollably as he decided the rhythm. Zoro leaned himself over her and held her breasts with his hands as he continued thrusting into her. Lexi could feel his sweat drop on her back and his hot ragged breaths on her neck. Zoro played with her breasts, he pulled her nipples and squeezed them and then went back to massaging them again. This led to Lexi now having her fourth orgasm through this act. "Zoro, mmm, you're so good." She whimpered.

Having had a hard on while he slept and having had all kinds of sexy fantasies of the girl he loved in his sleep Zoro found it hard to find his orgasm and realized that he had to do something different. He let go of her breasts and repositioned himself. He now held her hips with both his hands and began to thrust much faster, harder and deeper than he had before. Seeing Lexi as a sexy mess beneath him and her once again orgasming, squeezing him he finally found his release. He held her hips hard as he shot his seeds into her and moaning her name as if it was some kind of prayer.

When he was finally spent he dropped down on the floor on his back with heavy breathing.

 **END OF LEMON WARNING**

Zoro pulled Lexi on top of him, they laid like that and soon enough they were both asleep again, both exhausted by Zoro's doings.

The next time Zoro woke up he tiredly opened an eye to see Lexi's head rest on his chest as she slept soundly. A faint light entered the windows of the Crow's nest from the rising sun. Zoro smiled and traced his hands lightly over Lexi's bare back. He laid like that for a long while, while thinking of the time he had spent with the girl atop of him from the moment he met her in that alley. It was strange but somehow it all felt right, she felt right, like she was there for him only.

When Lexi slowly opened her eyes and looked up to Zoro's face she got thrilled by being met with an affectionate smile and loving gaze. Zoro stroke a hand over her cheek and said steadily. "Good morning."

"Morning?"

"Hehe, yes, we kind of slept in a bit. I think the others have already woken up and are waiting for breakfast."

"Did we really sleep that long?"

"We should probably head down too otherwise Luffy will gobble down all the food." And so the pair of them began to look for their clothes and right before climbing down Zoro trapped her in his arms and gave her a slow kiss.

"Thank you Lexi, I love you."

"I love you too Zoro." They stared into each others eyes, before finally joining the others.

—-

"Look who's finally got up, yohohoho!" Brook laughed.

"If you would have made Lexi late for breakfast I would have kicked your ass, your shitty swordsman!"

"What did you say curlybrow?"

And so the routine began again with Zoro and Sanji yelling at each other as food was being gobbled down, and Luffy trying to steal from both left and right and let's not forget about across of him.

When things started to quiet down Chopper raised his voice.

"Everyone I have some good news!" The crew turned their faces to him with expectant faces. "It's about Zoro's condition, except for one little thing Zoro is completely back to normal and I would say it's safe for all of us to start sailing again."

"Really!" Luffy and Usopp shouted.

"Hold on Luffy." Nami said sternly. "Chopper what do you mean except for one thing?"

"To be honest Zoro has been good for a couple of days now, I was just waiting to observe if the last problem would regress or not, which it unfortunately has not. I believe it might take a long while before it completely regresses."

"So what is it?" Nami pressed.

"As I said yesterday Zoro has problems with hiding what he's really feeling. It might not bother us but it will mostly be inconvenient for Zoro."

"Shouldn't we wait for it to pass then?" Usopp asked.

"I feel fine." Zoro answered. "We can set sail, I won't be a hindrance in a fight anymore."

"We didn't stay here because we thought you would be a hindrance, baka!" Nami said angrily.

"Shihihihi! It's decided then! Tomorrow morning we set sail!"

Nami began giving orders to the crew to collect fresh water and store food so that they would be prepared for their next adventure.

—-

 **I hope I managed to write it well! 2 more chapters to go and this story will be finished.**


	21. Chapter 21

**This chapter is a bit short and a side story. I hope you will like it. The next chapter will be the last and will be updated tomorrow night or monday morning since there is a paragraph I want to add. Anyway enjoy this short little one ^^**

 **Chapter 21**

Lexi and Robin exited their ship's small library after having spent the chilly afternoon reading books.

They had been at sea for two entire weeks now and they were running low on provisions and that's why Usopp, Chopper and Brook were holding fishing rods but strangely they weren't fishing as they should be. They felt a strong pressure hit them and that's when the girls noticed Sanji looking dumbfounded and scratching his head while Nami was yelling loudly at a big cloud with arms and legs sticking out on the ship and Franky trying to get into the cloud only to constantly being pushed out.

When they got closer they realized that the cloud of arms and legs were actually Zoro and Luffy.

"Are they fighting?" Lexi asked curiously as they got closer.

"Those idiots are going to break Sunny!" Franky wailed.

"I'm not paying for these repairs. You idiots will pay from your own pockets!" Nami screamed furiously.

"Cook-san, what happened?"

"Robin-chwan 3 3" Sanji got out of his stupor and turned to Robin with hearts in his eyes. He then sighed and looked back at the fight. "We're all pretty much hungry since we're running low on food but I decided to make some snack so i brought it out. Before I could even tell them Luffy and Zoro ran up to the table. Zoro managed to take a hold of the plate with desserts first. They had a stare-down and Luffy said 'Zoro' warningly, but Marimo just smiled and gobbled it all down. Luffy got mad and thus they began fighting. The worst thing is that the stupid Marimo is still smiling and laughing! It's weird Robin-chwan, it's weird, please stop them!" Sanji begged.

Lexi and Robin looked at each other before Robin closed her eyes and used her Devil Fruit's power. Shortly after the group could hear a loud thud and then they could see Zoro and Luffy laying flat on the deck with their face down and Robin's extra hands around their legs and keeping them immobile.

"There you go Franky, they're still now." Robin smiled at him.

Franky sat himself between them and said sternly. "If you two break anything else I will start to break you! Now both of you speak to each other!"

"Zoro! Why did you eat my snack?!"

"I was hungry."

"But i'm hungry too!"

"You always steal my food when i'm hungry."

"But i'm your Captain."

"And i'm your Swordsman."

"And why are you smiling for?! I'm being serious!"

"I'm not smiling."

"Yes you are!"

"No, i'm not."

"YES YOU ARE!"

"Luffy calm down, if you catch something I will make you a special snack so stop fighting." Sanji lit a cigarette and puffed on it as Luffy turned wide eyed to Sanji.

"Honto-nee?"

"Yeah, yeah, so hurry up and catch something if you want to eat."

Luffy rushed up now free of his restraints and ran to the rest of the fishing group and picked up his own fishing rod. He turned his head sharply back at Zoro and shouted. "Zoro! This is your fault! Come over here and help me catch something, Captain's order!"

"Hai!"

Zoro slowly stood up and dusted himself off. Even if the fishing group had their backs towards the rest the other five crew members clearly saw the affectionate and loving look the swordsman gave his captain's back while muttering annoyed. "Mendoksee Luffy, what a bother when I could be sleeping."

Sanji shook his head while puffing faster on his cigarette. "Weird, i'm telling you it's weird how his face doesn't match his words…"

"You know he can't help it." Lexi lectured him.

"I swear, those idiots! Franky, help me calculate the cost of the repairs of the things they broke." The two of them disappeared into the kitchen so that they could work without disturbances.

—

 **Thank you for reading, I hope you liked it. Next chapter will be the last ^^**


	22. Chapter 22

**Here it is, the last chapter! I don't have much to say except for 'Enjoy'! ^^**

 **Chapter 22**

The day was sunny and bright and the mugiwara's were enjoying lunch outside on deck. It was as lively as always with the constant laughing, shouting and fighting from the boys. When they were pretty much done Brook took out his violin and began to play the pirate tune 'Bink no sake'.

It was in this mood that Sanji noticed a large ship getting closer.

"Oi, Luffy, there's a ship ahead."

"Honto-nee?! Let's go meet them!" Luffy shouted happily.

As they dropped anchor next to the ship they noticed that the other pirates were downcast and gloomy. Some were even sitting in corners holding their heads and mumbling to themselves.

"Minna! Are you ok?" Luffy shouted.

A young boy with dark shadows under his eyes walked up to the railing. He observed Luffy and the crew quietly before saying.

"You, should turn and leave this part of the sea. There's nothing here but misery awaiting you all."

"Wwh…aaaatttt… dddo… you mean?" Usopp stuttered.

"What happened to you? Do you need medical treatment?" Chopper asked worriedly.

The boy didn't answer, instead a strong man came up to his side and spoke.

"The pain these men are suffering from is not physical, the only injured thing was their minds. Gurik you should be ashamed not recognizing them. They are the Strawhat pirates, they would never back down from a challenge from the sea."

"What kind of challenge is awaiting us?" Nami asked seriously. She knew not to take the sea lightly.

"A few kilometers ahead there is a fog waiting for you, when you've entered the fog everything turns white and you are transported into each others minds. The fog enables you to see each others greatest pains and darkest memories, it shows you also the deepest hidden secrets. Somehow it enables you to see all of this as if you were a bystander, another strange thing is that without being able to feel the others pain you are able to see and understand it."

"That sounds like a real bother…" Franky muttered quietly. "Not only will you have to relive your own sorrows but we also need to witness each others."

"There is more though… If the fog would feel like any of you are giving up or giving in mentally it will spit the ship out of the fog they way it came. That's what happened to us. And one last thing… the fog starts with the person with the less hurtful memories and ends with most painful ones. You should all prepare well before going in." The man said warningly.

"We have all lived through our hardships once and therefore we can do it again. We will not back down because of something like that." Zoro said confidently.

The crew's faces lit up and huge smiles were seen on their faces. They bid the other ship farewell after Chopper had done what he could for them.

—-

Nami gathered the group in the kitchen when they were on their way again.

"Everyone! Robin made some research and found somethings she wanted to share with you all."

"As that man described things were written in the book that i found, additionally it said that crews that stayed closed together when they hit the fog had a higher chance of making it through. The key here is to support each other and take in our nakama's burdens. Furthermore according to Nami we will reach the fog in an hour, I suggest that everyone finish what you're doing and then let's meet up on deck and meditate."

"Nah, Robin why do we have to meditate?" Luffy asked with a bored expression.

"It's to go through our own minds and prepare ourselves for what coming, face your pains before they hit you."

"Souka! Everyone you heard Robin. Get the ship ready and meet up on deck." Luffy shouted happily before telling Sanji to give him some meat.

Everyone had been gathered now for a while meditating in a circle when Nami said.

"We're entering it now, prepare yourself!"

Just as she said, their ship slowly entered the fog, soon they couldn't see anything at all except for the grey that was the mist. Before they knew it they were surrounded by blackness and all they could see was each other.

"Has it started?" Usopp stuttered.

"What do you think happened to the fog?" Lexi asked nervously.

"I guess we are about to find out." Robin said seriously.

After a moment in silence the darkness began to change. And some of the crew recognized the scenery that they saw as Syrup Village. They could see a young Usopp sitting at the bedside of a woman which must have been his mother. They listened to the stories Usopp would come up with to entertain his mother. But other than just observing the strange thing was that the crew felt that whatever Usopp was feeling they were feeling it as well. They didn't have a physical body they didn't see it from one specific spot, it was like they were everywhere and saw everything from every angle, as if they were just a presence.

The day Usopp's mother died they got to share his pain, and his broken heart for the many years after. They got to experience Usopp in fear and they got to experience his mixed feelings towards his father, a hate that had been growing but also an admiration to what his father stood for. They then got to relive Usopp's heartbreaking feelings when Merry died, and his fight with Luffy and his time during those 2 years when the crew was apart, next was his painful fight with Sugar and Trebol of the Don quixote family. When the crew had gone through Usopp's pains they reverted back to the darkness, and to their own bodies. They stood silent as they watched Usopp in tears on his knees having to accept his past.

Luffy walked up to him and gave him his hand. Usopp looked at it and then realized, that he was not alone and that his nakama was standing right next to him and that they were closer than family, they had each others backs. With a determined smile and looking at Luffy through his tears he grabbed the hand Luffy offered and pulled himself up. He wiped his face and gave Luffy a nod.

They all stood in silence as they were all deep in their own thoughts. Then the darkness was gone and they saw the snowy country of Drum Island. They saw Chopper when he was still a small little reindeer. They recognized his blue nose and witnessed the bullying the other reindeers did to him. They felt Chopper's every emotion and saw how he got pushed away and then how the humans rejected him. They experienced the love he received and gave to doctor Hilruk and also the feelings of guilt when Chopper realized he had given him poisonous mushrooms. They felt the pain Chopper went through when he couldn't control his transformations and when he took too many rumble balls. They finally understood the amount of pain Chopper felt whenever he had to treat their injuries maybe they were the ones hurt but for Chopper it was his heart that pained him. Especially guilty felt Zoro having to see the amount of time Chopper put him back together especially after Thriller Bark and his most recent torture experience. Even though all of this was hard for Chopper he managed to stand with his head held high once they were back in the darkness. He had learnt to accept these things long ago and it was thanks to that, that he had become stronger and was able to support his nakama. The crew had never really understood the hardships Chopper had lived through, but now they had regained a new found respect for their little doctor.

It only took a few moments before they were in a different scenario. They quickly recognized the scrawny little blonde which was Sanji whom was wearing a strange helmet. He was in a dark room and they soon realized that he was in a cell. He kept calling out to his father, pleading him to let him out while saying that the space was dark and creepy

His next memory was of Sanji laying on the ground being beaten by three other boys who looked strangely much alike him. Even the eyebrows were on spot and the crew heard how they threw hurtful words at him and to make it worse his father appeared and didn't seem to do anything to stop but instead told Sanji he was a shame to their family name.

Then the scene changed and Sanji was working on a cruise ship as a kitchen boy, that is until the ship got attacked by pirates. The crew soon recognized Red Leg Zeff, as his crew was wreaking havoc on the cruise ship. They saw the storm that hit and how Sanji was thrown into the sea. A moment later Sanji was on a rock and the crew soon found out the hell that he had experienced and they understood why the cook had such an obsession with not wasting food. The scenery changed once again and they were now on Thriller Bark, the first scene showed how Sanji full of fear tried to take Zoro's place only to get knocked out and the next scene showed Sanji waking up, terrified of what might have happened only to be filled of guilt upon finding Zoro. Next they got warped to Kamabakka Island and they truly saw the Hell which Sanji had to go through for two years. No wonder Sanji had reacted the way he had with that okama ghost on their last treasure hunt.

When they were back in the darkness the crew felt sympathy for Sanji but they also felt as if they wanted to laugh. Only Luffy seemed to have remembered the occurrences on Thriller Bark.

"Oy Sanji, what was that about on Thriller Bark?"

But before Sanji could say anything they were moved to another location. They all recognized a small Lexi running on the street with a huge smile on her face only for that smile to disappear when she reached her worn house. They saw her parents get abused by the loan sharks and how the day came when her parents died. They saw her horrible childhood turn into an horrible teenage period. When they first met her they had realized she had been treated badly but they hadn't realized just how bad it had actually been. Then they were on that pirate ship that had captured her, Luffy and Zoro. They could feel her exhaustion and fear and pain as she and them had to witness some of the torture the swordsman had gone through. Next was the moment the bounty hunter had his sword at Zoro's throat and that was the moment she killed someone for the first time. When it ended she bore a face of pain and disgust but it soon faded as she saw the supporting glances of her nakama.

Next was Nami in Cocoyasi Village. The part of the crew that had joined on the Grand Line now found out more about Nami's hate for fishmen and why it had meant so much to her on Fisherman Island. They all felt her fear and hate for Arlong and how she alone struggled to save up beri to free her village from Arlong's hand. Nami was indeed much tougher than many of them had thought. Then in Alabasta she had to fight that devil fruit user on her own and the crew clearly felt her panic and frustrated state as her clima tact kept disappointing her. They also felt guilty realizing how many times they had put her in distress.

When Nami's pain ended she said firmly. "I've already come to terms with my past." The others gave her a nod to recognize her strength.

Next they were on a ship and they saw a small little boy with light blue hair picking fights with the adults. The flag on the ship clearly showed that it was a ship of pirates. Soon the ship reached what many of them recognized as a primitive Water 7, as they got close they witnessed how a young man with short dark hair lift Franky up and tossed him in the sea. When Franky then surfaced the man yelled at him. "Oy Cutty, we're getting rid of you now, you're too much of a bother you worthless son!" "Who are you calling worthless son you worthless father!" Franky yelled back. Even though he had a tough outer appearance the crew could clearly feel the pain he felt in his heart. They then saw different aspects of Franky's life as he lived together with his new family at Water 7 and then the horrible day which changed everything. When Franky's battleships attacked Tom and Iceburg and when Tom got dragged to Enies Lobby on the same train he had built, they truly could feel the pain and guilt Franky harbored and probably still carried. They then felt the pain of Franky getting hit by the sea train as he tried to stop it with his bare hands and how he painfully made himself into a cyborg using his genius.

Back at the darkness silent tears fell from Franky's eye and he repeatedly whispered Tom's name and how it was all his own fault. That is until Nami told him boldly that it was ok to cry which he then did. When he had managed to calm down and when the silence lay heavy another past was shown.

They didn't recognize the island they were on but it was hard not to understand that it was Robin they were seeing which meant they had to be on Ohara. They saw Robin's painful childhood how she was bullied by her peers and caretakers and when she finally got to see her mother, her mother had to die, they saw through her eyes and felt with her emotions as she experienced her island getting burned up and how her first friend Saul had to die by the hands of Aokiji and how Aokiji gave her a chance to escape due to that friendship with Saul. They saw how she was hunted and labeled the Devil Child and the hideous things she had to do to stay alive, and then her conflicted feelings in Water 7 and the whole chaos on Enies Lobby.

After those painful memories had past they could see Robin crying. She wiped her tears and gently told them. "It's ok, i'm ok, it's all ok, because i found you. I found my nakama." They all gave her warm smiles, everyone proud to be someone precious to her.

Next they found themselves at Twin Capes, Laboon was there and so was Brook and they finally got to see him the way he used to look like before turning into bones. Brook's sadness was deep as his crew made their promise to Laboon of returning. As the ship was leaving they heard the merry tune of Bink no sake playing as they left Laboon. They then got to experience the pain and sadness of losing ones captain. They saw how the captain of the Rumbar pirates York fell sick and how his crew had to suffer, they saw how he appointed Brook as his successor and finally they saw how he died. They time skipped and lived through the attack on the Rumbar pirates and the incredibly pain as Bink no sake was recorded on the tone dial for Laboon in case Brook wouldn't die. Next they experienced loneliness like no other, 50 years of loneliness hit them hard and when Brook finally got free from his past Luffy said comfortingly. "Brook we won't die on you, so you don't need to feel alone anymore."

Next they were at Luffy's hometown, making their stay be Fushia Village. They were not surprised to see that Luffy hadn't changed a bit since then. But they were shocked to see the whole ordeal with the bandits and at the end Shanks losing his arm to save Luffy. They saw Luffy's times in the jungle when Garp threw him in there for training. They then saw how Luffy day in and day out tried to follow Ace, and how they became brothers. Having seen all this just made the pain so much more worse when Sabo was presumed to be dead. The crew finally got to see how Zoro got the horrendous scar on his front when Luffy saw Mihawk strike him down at the Baratie. They felt the fury rising inside of him and how he recklessly attacked Mihawk until Mihawk proclaimed that he had not killed Zoro. After that they saw Luffy at Nami's bedside when she was sick after having left Little Garden, they didn't know the amount of worry their captain felt for them. They then found themselves in the kingdom of Alabasta where they experienced Luffy's fight with Crocodile and how close to death he had been. Next was Water 7 just as in Usopp's pained memories they also got to see and feel the two comrades fight through Luffy's viewpoint, it was strange but somehow it seemed the whole thing had hurt Luffy more than Usopp. After that they were in the ruins of Enies Lobby. It was Luffy's fight with Rob Lucci that was taking place and once again Luffy was close to death but somehow as always he pulled through. Next was the burial of Merry. Even though Usopp had deep down always known that the crew cared and grieved Merry it was comforting to share this part of Luffy's pain to know that Luffy had actually cared. At Thriller Bark the scenes they got to watch were Luffy against Oz and Moria. He had received so much pain that it was hard for his crew to take it. Then they felt surprisingly light and free from pain only to feel a heavy feeling a knot deep in their belly as Luffy saw his wounded swordsman. Next was Sabaody Archipelago when the Pacifictas assaulted together with Kizaru, Sentomaru and Bartholomew Kuma. The most painful was to see themselves getting sent away one by one and how Luffy despaired as he couldn't do a thing to save them. The fight with Magellan was next and as he was covered by poison and then treated by Ivankov the crew felt the same pain and understood that had it been them, they would not have survived. At marineford they experienced the force that had unleashed Luffy's haki, but worst was the moment Ace died in front of Luffy. The grief could not be expressed in mere words and his other injuries seemed insignificant to the mental pain he was suffering. Then at Amazon Lily Luffy goes insane and only by Jimbei's words does he come back to reality where he realizes that he still has his friends.

They were all back to the darkness, many of them cried but Luffy stood with clench fists and his strawhat covered his eyes as he looked at his feet. "Our pasts will not break us." He said firmly, but as he said so a cool, strong wind rushed them all, and they could hear a voice whisper in their ears.

"Maybe it didn't break all of you, but it's always the best that is saved for last." The crew quickly turned their head to find Zoro clutching his head hard. "Stop hurting him! Who are you and why are you doing this?" Luffy screamed.

"I'm simply a test to the entrance of a part of the sea for you to pass or fail. If one person break, you all break."

Suddenly Zoro screamed at the voice. "No you can't show them! You can't show them everything!"

"What is shown is what has to be shown." With those final words that seemed to come from everywhere Zoro got wrapped up in darkness and disappear only for the rest of the crew to follow.

They found themselves in the outskirts of a village. It was dusk and they saw a small Zoro practicing with his shinai. When he stopped with his repetitions and realized that it was becoming dark he hurried in a sprint towards the small village. He ran towards a small little house at the very end of the village and as he tried to hide his shinai outside the house a tall woman with short blonde hair walked up to him.

"Zoro…" Her tone was cold. Zoro stiffened and held the shinai behind his back.

"Mom… i'm sorry, I just…"

Without waiting for him to finish she took the shinai from his hold and took it into the house where a fire was burning, she threw it into the fire while Zoro was clutching to her leg and begging her to stop.

"Why do you hate it so much!" He yelled at her.

"We're not going over this again." She then hit him hard over his face to the point that he fell to the floor. As he tried to get up again she kicked him hard and he laid on the floor with dimmed eyes as he tried to look at his mother.

She stared down at him for a moment before saying. "I never want to see you use that thing again, your dinner is on the table." She said before going into another room. The scene ended with Zoro crying into his arms.

The next scene must have been the day after as Zoro was sitting on the ground making a new shinai. The sun stood high and it was easy to see his heavily bruised face. But Zoro didn't care about his bruised face, all he needed to do was to finish his shinai so that he could continue his practice. Around him, he could hear people talking about him, how his face was messed up, how his mother was raising him, how bad of a mother she was. It hurt him to hear this but he endured, it was nothing new after all. The scenery changed once again, now Zoro's face was fully healed, it was dark in his house but in the kitchen Zoro's mother was sitting and crying at the table. Zoro stood in the shadows and listened to his mother's cries.

"Why do I have to be all alone? And my idiot son, why must he resemble his foolish father? The stupid idiot had to become a swordsman and what happens, he get's cut down in a duel, leaving me a widow." She cried some more and downed some alcohol from an open bottle. "Zoro, you worthless piece get me another bottle!" She yelled. Slowly Zoro did as she said. "Why must my idiot son want to become a swordsman as well, you might as well die now your ungrateful insect!" Zoro placed the new bottle on the table next to the other one and slowly backed away, but before he reached his room, his mother took the empty bottle and threw it on his head. "Why don't you just die now? Why can't you leave me alone? Why must you remind me of him every day? I wish I had never had you!"

She broke down crying again and continued drinking her alcohol. It didn't take long before she was passed out at the table. Zoro went into another room and brought a blanket out which he covered her with, he then gave her long tearful hug. "Mom, i'm sorry you had to have me, but i'm happy to be your son. I will show you that dad's dream wasn't stupid. I will become the best one." The scenery changed and the season had changed, it was more windy this day. The kind of day not many people would go outside, but Zoro had, and he now headed home. He hid his shinai under a few bushes further away from his home and he happily strode home. But as he got home he found something he had not expected. In the kitchen he found his mom hanged, he ran up to her and started to cry and beg her to come down to the floor but to no avail, his mom was dead. The nearest neighbor which was passing by on the way to his own home, heard the cries and rushed in. When he saw what had happened he pulled Zoro out of the house and carried him away as he notified the rest of the village. A day or two later Zoro left the village and began his quest to become the best by taking down the dojo sign by dueling the dojo's best fighter.

Zoro's next memory took the crew to the day Zoro reached the Isshin Dojo at Shimotsuki Village. They got to witness his brutal defeat and his embarrassment, and also his rival Kuina who strangely resembled a marine they could all remember. It was strange to see the invincible Zoro lose time and time again to this girl and then the day they made the promise to each other of one of them becoming the world's strongest swordsman came. And then the shocking revelation to the strawhats as they witnessed her dead corpse and Zoro's strong emotions of sadness, shock, and betrayal.

Not many memories later they came upon the incident where Zoro killed Helmeppo's dog and got tied to a pole to starve. This specially came as a shock to Sanji, not having known that somebody on the crew had also suffered the pain of starvation. They then saw how Luffy fed him the food from the ground and the humiliation he felt. Next was the Baratie, Johnny and Yosaku had just pulled him up from the water, and as the horrible wound on his chest bled profusely, he cried as a child and made his promise to Luffy.

Once again they were in Cocoyashi Village but this time from Zoro's point of view. Nami had never really understood or known how much effort her friends had put into the fight with Arlong until now. As she felt the pain Zoro was suffering from she cried invisible tears. Next when Arlong held Zoro in a chokehold and ripped off his bandages the crew got a good look at the fresh wound only to see Luffy exchange place with Zoro by literally throwing him away. Luffy cringed as he felt the pain he had caused Zoro by acting so recklessly.

The next horrible moment for Zoro was in Logue Town where he accidentally stumbled upon Tashigi and broke her glasses. Shock, pain, sorrow and disbelief were feelings passing through him as he laid eyes on her. Just like the others his memories took him to Skypiea, and just like the others he had painful memories of getting burnt by Enel's lightning. Then at Enies Lobby they got to experience the strange feeling of sorrow as Zoro's sword broke. The crew came to understand that Zoro placed his swords as high as them, to him his swords were also nakama.

Thriller Bark was next. The crew got to see the amazing fight with the mummy Ryuuma and when he recovered the legendary sword from the Wano Kingdom. Then they saw the fight with Oz and after with Kuma. They had all experienced each other's pain from that horrid place but somehow Zoro's injuries seemed to hurt a bit more. Then as everyone seemed to have been passed out and Kuma went for Luffy, Zoro stood up to Kuma. Only two of the crew other than Zoro had known what had really transpired during that conversation but now it was revealed to everyone. They could see how Zoro offered his life in place of Luffy only for Sanji to interfere. It was hard for them to interpret what the feeling Zoro had when he knocked Sanji out, preventing him from sacrificing himself. Kuma then proceed to make his deal with Zoro telling him that for him to take Luffy's place he had to also take Luffy's pain and injuries. As he gave the sample of that pain to Zoro the crew had not expected what would have come out of it just like Zoro had at the time. Had they been able to die or pass out in this foggy memory place the crew was sure they would have done so when they felt the pain that small sample had to give. Luffy was in shock, how could Zoro have taken his pain. He could obviously take his own suffering but feeling it through Zoro was much worse, it was evident for them all that neither of their bodies were made to take any of the injuries or strains that Luffy suffered from during a battle. Even if this was the case they had to watch it all threw, after the pain from that first sample had ended they saw how Zoro laid on the ground spitting blood. Slowly he stood up, and when Kuma asked Zoro if he had changed his mind, Luffy wished he had. When Zoro said he wanted to change the location they shared his thoughts of why, not wanting his crew waking up to see him receiving his judgement, and not wanting to color them with his blood. It was with great fear and determination that Zoro stuck his arms into the bubble of pain. It was impossible to describe the level of pain, it was as if his entire body was being ripped apart. Chopper saw and felt everything in horror understanding exactly what was going on in Zoro's body and head.

It was strange for them to see Sanji approaching Zoro asking what had happened as Zoro was holding on to life with only determination to a certain promise keeping him in this world. Next on their voyage to Sabaody and their encounter with Camie and saving Hacchin, the crew got surprised at how many times Zoro felt pain due to his injuries, the pain could be described a painful stab into his chest and heart. Then at Sabaody they felt his hopelessness fighting the admiral Kizaru and the pain from the various injuries he received before he was sent flying by Kuma.

Next on Kuragana Island they witnessed how he with his injuries had to fight the baboons to escape the island and then the appearance of Dracule Mihawk. Then what made strange emotion come up in Luffy was when Zoro bowed his head down to Mihawk, begging him to make him stronger. The memory after showed Zoro laying on the ground writhing in pain, hands over his face as blood kept pooling through. Mihawk walked up to him and kicked him hard in his belly, making him fly into a tree. "Get up, is that all you've got." He said with a low tone.

He slowly stood up, breathing heavily, and they could hear Perona's high pitched voice. "Ahhh! His eye! We need to treat it. He won't be able to use it otherwise!"

"He doesn't need his eye. He should learn not to rely on it after all. Zoro finish those human drills and then go rest." Before the memory faded they got a small glimpse of Zoro's damaged eye…

The last two memories were the ones when Zoro got sick and then when him, Lexi and Luffy got trapped and tortured. It was terrifying having to see what they had been through, but it also made them feel safe knowing that Zoro always had their back, that he would save them no matter what. Lastly they were shown the time after Zoro had awoken from his coma, they never thought he had been so upset with the situation of not controlling himself.

When the memory disappeared they returned to the blackness. Their eyes were all watery and tears were pouring down but when they looked for Zoro they found him on his knees while clutching his head hard. His eyes were firmly closed and it looked like he was keeping himself from going insane. Before anyone could reach out to him, they all heard that voice again but this time it seemed as if the voice was only in their heads.

"You sure are a bunch of sore memories. The first condition of passing through this fog has been cleared. To proceed and exit the fog you all have to agree to go through your own worst memories once again. If one person declines you will all be sent back to the sea from which you entered without having the chance of exploring this new sea. When the decision has been made it will start immediately."

Luffy looked around on his nakama seeing that they were all determined to go through it all again for each other but then his gaze fell on Zoro and he started to bawl. "It's ok Zoro, if you don't want to, it's ok, we don't mind. You don't have to go through it again…" before he could finish the darkness disappeared, and they were all plunged back into their deepest despair.

Finally the memories and darkness faded and the Strawhat crew were faced by a strong and shining sun and a clear blue sky. The atmosphere hung low, the last time they were sent back to their memories they had gotten more memories added to their own load consisting of the hurt they felt from seeing each others horrid past and experiences.

Sanji lit a cigarette and headed into the kitchen to make something light to eat for the others. Robin went to read a book, and Nami left to tend to her mikans. Brook played a slow tune on his violin, more for himself than any of the others. Franky and Chopper were by the railings looking out to the sea, both lost in their memories. Usopp and Luffy laid on their backs on the grass while looking up at the sky. Lexi left to take a bath while rubbing her arms absentmindedly. Zoro remained were he was sitting against the mast with a dead look in his eye. No one had the energy to care for another or to worry how the others were feeling, they all knew that everyone was feeling terrible and everyone needed some time just to collect themselves.

After an hour Sanji called for dinner, slowly the crew made their way and ate in silence. Sanji looked at the empty seat of Zoro's but he just sighed and continued to eat from his own plate. This day had been far from normal even according to their standards. When they were done eating Chopper was the first one to use his voice.

"I will go check on Zoro, when you're done come outside, we have to talk this out together." Chopper said this in his doctor's voice which really made it impossible for the rest to refuse. Luffy gave a confirming nod to the little reindeer but the moment Zoro's name had been mentioned he had gotten something dark in his eyes and the others felt a tiny bit of fear towards him.

Chopper approached Zoro with determination. Having seen all of what happened earlier that day he realized he was the only one who could actually help his nakama come to peace with themselves. He began with calling out to his friend, when he didn't get a response he observed him closer. Zoro's eye seemed lifeless and were bloodshot, his body was limp and it didn't seem like he was even aware of Chopper's presence.

The little doctor took out his stethoscope and listened carefully to his heart. It sounded good and strong, his blood pressure was normal. Chopper vaguely registered that the others had joined and was sitting on the lawn waiting for him to finish. He tried again to speak to Zoro but still he did not gain a response. He then realized what was going on. Zoro was doing what he always did, keeping it all bottled up inside of himself. What Chopper did next was to sit on his lap and give him a warm hug as he spoke gently.

"It's ok Zoro. You don't need to always appear strong in front of us. You shared our painful past so let us share yours. We saw what you have been through, it's ok to relax, to cry, to scream, to do anything. No one here will judge you. Please let us be your pillar sometimes as well." As he spoke Zoro began to break, that dead look he had in his eye got replaced by pain and then big tears started to fall down his cheek. He then replied with a broken voice to Chopper and his crewmates.

"Tired, i'm so tired." Tears were now pouring down and he dropped his gaze to the floor.

Sanji sat down next to him and hit him hard over his back.

"Stupid Marimo, just cry it out will you!"

That seemed to have done it, as Zoro angrily turned his head to face him and shout. "Who is crying, Love Cook!?"

"Yohohohoho, you two never miss a chance to fight."

Chopper went over and sat with Robin to avoid getting into any fights that might erupt. He then began in a serious voice.

"Everyone, what we went through today was very hard on us. I'm telling you this as your doctor. If any of us begins to have thoughts or questions about what happened and not express them to the party that is concerned, the situation on this ship will get very ugly and our group will fall apart. If anyone of you have something to tell another, to clear the air i recommend doing it now, instead of carrying it inside. Speak up!"

There was a short silence while they pondered what had been said before Zoro spoke.

"I don't want your pity for what's in the past, and I don't want you to think any less of me due to what you have seen." He looked around himself and saw that all of them gave him a nod except for Luffy who kept his eyes hard.

"Usopp," Franky began. "You have become very strong, you shouldn't look down on yourself so much, you are brave."

"Even if I seem a bit closed off, I want you to know that i'm always willing to listen to any of you, no matter what it is." Robin said with passion.

Then there was a silence again. There was still something heavy in the air between them and thats when they realized that their captain still wore that angry, enraged face.

"Sanji, Brook… You two knew, why did you never tell me?" Luffy didn't need to mention what he was thinking of, the two immediately knew what he was talking about.

"I didn't feel it was my place to tell." Brook said seriously.

"The marimo didn't do it to get it recognized." Sanji said awkwardly.

Luffy gave a nod to show he understood their reasons, he then turned his gaze to Zoro.

"You, why did you do that?"

"You are irreplaceable Luffy."

"And you don't think you are?"

"How could I ever reach my ambition if I couldn't even save my captain? I'm simply just a swordsman."

"And what about me? How could I ever become the Pirate King if I must sacrifice my nakama to get there!?"

"But Luffy, the crew needs you. Without you we're nothing…"

"I don't care! How can I accept that you sacrificed yourself for me? My pain is my pain and it's meant for me to carry! I can handle my own pain!"

"It was my choice!"

"It was my life!"

"It was my life too!"

Out of nowhere Luffy threw a strong punch at Zoro whom did not expect it, got hit full force and flew into the mast. Before he could stand up Luffy stood above him, throwing his shadow on him. Luffy's body was tensed, his hands were turned into fists and his head hung low. Zoro looked up and saw tears pour out of Luffy's eyes, and also snot kept hanging from his nose.

"Luffy…"

"Baka! You really almost died!" Luffy bawled and dropped to his knees as he pulled Zoro in for a hug as he helplessly cried.

Zoro's shoulders began to tremble and soon he was crying as hard as Luffy while returning the hug. "You almost died too baka!" Zoro managed to get out between his sobs.

It didn't take long before the entire crew was crying. Sanji kept muttering baka marimo as he wiped his tears in vain. Brook started playing a comforting quick tune. Usopp jumped in and joined the hug, while Nami cried and sobbed that she would add to both their debts for being idiots. Robin and Chopper cried together and Franky had his handkerchief ready to wipe his own tears. Lexi stood on the side and shed silent tears. First now had she realized what kind of man she had fallen in love with, and fist now did she understand how much this crew had truly been through together. She could only hope she would be able to bond as strongly to them as they already were to each other.

Suddenly and loudly Luffy screamed. "Sanji! We need a banquet to celebrate reaching this sea! Niku, niku, niku!"

"Then I will go and prepare it right away. Go catch some fish or something we need to explore the meat of this sea."

A long while later when the sky was full of sparkling stars the crew laid spread out on the lawn of the Sunny. Most of them were passed out from the booze and some others were lost in their own thoughts. Lexi and Zorro laid next to each other with Lexi resting her head on Zorro's arm.

"Zorro…?"

"Hmm…"

"Do you think Kuina is watching over you from up there?"

"I hope so…"

"I think… When you become the world's greatest swordsman, your fame will definitely reach her."

"You think so..?"

"I do."

"Hehe… me too, Lexi, me too."

They fell back in silence and lost themselves in thoughts until sleep eventually got to them.

They had all had to go through their horrid pasts but at least they had gone through them with their nakama, the people who mattered the most to them. Maybe they all carried new scars in their hearts but now they were bonded even harder.

THE END

 **This long project has now come to an end I hope that this story has been satisfying through all chapters, if it hasn't I apologize. It's been fun to write and at the same time challenging. Thank you for supporting Old Secrets Revealed, every follow/favorite/review have left me with a huge smile.**

 **Thank you! ^^**


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